Fatima is 67 years old and was just 15 when she got married. Her marriage resulted in eight pregnancies of which one was aborted. She was among 320 people in Palestine who attended a Doctors of the World workshop on the negative effects of getting married at an early age.

“My life was not easy, being married and having babies so young, and trying to work out if I was a girl or a woman,” she explains, adding that she feels lucky that she does not have major health problems after having so many children at an early age. “I am so happy that Doctors of the World is running these early marriage workshops in our village because the girls and the parents need to understand what can happen if you marry early.”

Doctors of the World carried out ten workshops in five villages around the city of Nablus in December 2010 for young people and their parents.

The workshops covered various topics including the physiological and psychological effects of early marriage. Some of the negative outcomes of early marriage include lower educational levels, early child-bearing and higher household poverty.

According to Doctors of the World Field Coordinator for the West Bank, Salah Daraghmeh, parents get their daughters married at an early age for various reasons. These include the belief that an early marriage protects their daughters from sexual assault and from becoming an economic burden to them.

“Whatever the reason may be, this can have a negative impact on the girl’s development and Doctors of the World is trying to guard against this by running these workshops to increase awareness in the community,” she said.

Read Doctors of the World's report on its awareness campaign on early marriage in Palestine.