Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that emphasizes punching and kicking techniques. Young teenage girls use the skill to escape from child marriage in Epworth, Zimbabwe, a densely populated suburb southeast of Zimbabwe’s capital.
Lisa Nyambupu, 17, is one girl who realized the fruits of the art after first stepping on a Taekwondo mat, which changed the future she had expected for herself, which was to marry young. She stated, “All along I thought there was nothing wrong about getting married early.”
In 2019, the young adolescent enrolled in Taekwondo classes taught by Natsiraishe Maritsa, a girl her age. She stated she learned child marriage was a dangerous practice from the art. She said, “It was at this forum where I learned it is actually a dangerous practice which must not be encouraged.”
Young mothers and girls forced into early marriages attend the training because the practice is common in Epworth, where low-income families marry many girls under 16.
According to Girls Not Brides, a campaign to end child marriages, 34% of Zimbabwean girls are married before 18, and 5% before 15.
Lisa hasn’t looked back since, and she now competes in the 45-50kg weight class, and the art has given her hope. She said, “Taekwondo gives me hope,” and “I learn discipline, self-defense and the art pushes me to strive in life.”
According to a UNICEF report, school dropouts and poor households in Zimbabwe are more likely to get married before 18, the country’s legal marriage age.
Lisa Nyambupu was born into a family of five who lacked financial support, forcing her to drop out of school at 13 following her father’s death, the breadwinner, and her mother’s inability to pay for school fees.
Kimberly Mupambawatyi, who has been a student in Maritsa’s Taekwondo class since 2020, believes that perpetrators of child marriages, including parents and legal guardians, should face legal consequences.
“Most of us girls get married early to escape poverty. But I have realized that poverty can still follow you at your husband’s home. It is important for us to achieve our dreams first,” said the 13-year-old.
Nyasha Tomeni, 43, recalls experiencing emotional abuse at the hands of her in-laws when she married at 17. “When my parents found out I was pregnant, they forced me to elope. My in-laws did not want me to get married to their son. They could not give me food and they called me derogatory names,” she said.
Sithembiso Nyoni, Zimbabwe’s Women Affairs Minister, stated that aligning the country’s marriage laws with the constitution and with one another will allow the police and judiciary to hold child marriage perpetrators and those who facilitate child marriage accountable.
“The ministry continues to engage with our counterparts in the justice ministry who administer the Marriage Act and are also currently behind the enactment of the Marriage Bill. The law-making process is not as simple as a straightforward issue. The law is dynamic and ever-changing and there is a need to balance the interests of different stakeholders, to come up with a sound piece of legislation,” the Woman Affairs Minister said.
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