水深火热的“童婚”：每两秒，就有一名未成年少女出嫁！

I'll begin today by sharing a poem written by my friend from Malawi, Eileen Piri. Eileen is only 13 years old, but when we were going through the collection of poetry that we wrote, I found her poem so interesting, so motivating. So I'll read it to you. She entitled her poem 'I'll Marry When I Want.'

今天我将首先分享一首来自马拉维的朋友艾琳·皮里写的诗。艾琳只有13岁，但当我们翻阅我们写的诗集时，我发现她的诗如此有趣，如此令人振奋。所以我读给你听。她给自己的诗取名为“我想结婚就结婚”。

'I'll marry when I want. My mother can't force me to marry. My father cannot force me to marry. My uncle, my aunt, my brother or sister, cannot force me to marry. No one in the world can force me to marry. I'll marry when I want. Even if you beat me, even if you chase me away, even if you do anything bad to me, I'll marry when I want.

“我想结婚就结婚。我妈妈不能强迫我结婚。我父亲不能强迫我结婚。我的叔叔，我的姑姑，我的兄弟姐妹，不能强迫我结婚。世界上没有人能强迫我结婚。我想什么时候结婚就什么时候结婚。哪怕你打我，哪怕你把我赶走，哪怕你对我做了什么坏事，我想什么时候结婚就什么时候结婚。

我想结婚的时候就结婚，但不是在我受过良好教育之前，也不是在我完全长大之前。

I'll marry when I want.'

我想什么时候结婚就什么时候结婚。”

This poem might seem odd, written by a 13-year-old girl, but where I and Eileen come from, this poem, which I have just read to you, is a warrior's cry.

这首诗可能看起来很奇怪，是一个13岁的女孩写的，但我和艾琳来自哪里，这首诗，我刚刚读给你听的，是一首战士的呐喊。

I am from Malawi. Malawi is one of the poorest countries, very poor, where gender equality is questionable.

我来自马拉维。马拉维是最贫穷的国家之一，非常贫穷，两性平等值得怀疑。

Growing up in that country, I couldn't make my own choices in life. I couldn't even explore personal opportunities in life.

在那个国家长大，我无法做出自己的人生选择。我甚至不能探索生活中的个人机会。

I will tell you a story of two different girls, two beautiful girls. These girls grew up under the same roof. They were eating the same food. Sometimes, they would share clothes, and even shoes. But their lives ended up differently, in two different paths.

我将告诉你一个关于两个不同女孩的故事，两个美丽的女孩。这些女孩在同一个屋檐下长大。他们在吃同样的食物。有时，他们会分享衣服，甚至鞋子。但他们的生活结局不同，走了两条不同的路。

The other girl is my little sister. My little sister was only 11 years old when she got pregnant. It's a hurtful thing. Not only did it hurt her, even me. I was going through a hard time as well.

另一个女孩是我的妹妹。我妹妹怀孕时才11岁。这是一件伤人的事。不仅伤害了她，甚至伤害了我。我也经历了一段艰难的时期。

As it is in my culture, once you reach puberty stage, you are supposed to go to initiation camps. In these initiation camps, you are taught how to sexually please a man. There is this special day, which they call 'Very Special Day' where a man who is hired by the community comes to the camp and sleeps with the little girls. Imagine the trauma that these young girls go through every day. Most girls end up pregnant. They even contract HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

在我老家的习俗了里，一旦你进入青春期，你就应该去参加启蒙营。在这些启蒙营中，你被教导如何在性方面取悦一个男人。有一个特别的日子，他们称之为“非常特别的一天”，社区雇佣的一个男人来到营地，和小女孩们睡在一起。想象一下这些年轻女孩每天遭受的创伤。大多数女孩最后都怀孕了。他们甚至感染艾滋病毒和艾滋病以及其他性传播疾病。

For my little sister, she ended up being pregnant. Today, she's only 16 years old and she has three children. Her first marriage did not survive, nor did her second marriage. On the other side, there is this girl. She's amazing.

说回我的妹妹，她后来怀孕了。如今，她只有16岁，有三个孩子。她的第一次婚姻没有好结果，第二次婚姻也没有好结果。在另一边，有一个女孩。她太棒了。

I call her amazing because she is. She's very fabulous. That girl is me. When I was 13 years old, I was told, you are grown up, you have now reached of age, you're supposed to go to the initiation camp. I was like, 'What? I'm not going to go to the initiation camps.' You know what the women said to me? 'You are a stupid girl.

我叫她了不起，因为她确实了不起。她非常棒。那个女孩就是我。当时我13岁，有人告诉我，你已经长大了，你已经成年了，你应该去参加入会营。我想，“什么？我不会去入会营的。”你知道女人们对我说了什么吗？“你是个愚蠢的女孩。

Stubborn. You do not respect the traditions of our society, of our community.'

你真固执。你不尊重我们和我们这边的传统。”

I said no because I knew where I was going. I knew what I wanted in life. I had a lot of dreams as a young girl. I wanted to get well educated, to find a decent job in the future. I was imagining myself as a lawyer, seated on that big chair.

我拒绝了，因为我知道我要去哪里。我知道我想要什么。我小时候有很多梦想。我想接受良好的教育，将来找一份体面的工作。我把自己想象成一个律师，坐在那张大椅子上。

Those were the imaginations that were going through my mind every day. And I knew that one day, I would contribute something, a little something to my community. But every day after refusing, women would tell me, 'Look at you, you're all grown up. Your little sister has a baby. What about you?' That was the music that I was hearing every day, and that is the music that girls hear every day when they don't do something that the community needs them to do.

我拒绝了，因为我知道我要去哪里。我知道我想要什么。我小时候有很多梦想。我想接受良好的教育，将来找一份体面的工作。我把自己想象成一个律师，坐在那张大椅子上。这些都是我每天脑子里浮现的想象。我知道有一天，我会为我的家乡贡献一些东西。但每天拒绝之后，女人都会告诉我，“看看你，你都长大了。你妹妹有个孩子。那你呢？”那是我每天听到的音乐，那是女孩们每天听到的音乐，当她们不做家乡需要她们做的事情时。

When I compared the two stories between me and my sister, I said, 'Why can't I do something? Why can't I change something that has happened for a long time in our community?'

当我比较我和我妹妹之间的两个故事时，我说：“为什么我不能做点什么？为什么我不能改变我们家乡已经发生了很长时间的事情？”

That was when I called other girls just like my sister, who have children, who have been in class but they have forgotten how to read and write. I said, 'Come on, we can remind each other how to read and write again, how to hold the pen, how to read, to hold the book.' It was a great time I had with them. Nor did I just learn a little about them, but they were able to tell me their personal stories, what they were facing every day as young mothers.

那是我给其他女孩打电话的时候，就像我姐姐一样，她们有孩子，在课堂上，但是她们忘记了怎么读和写。我说，“来吧，我们可以互相提醒如何读和写，如何拿笔，如何阅读，如何拿书。”我和他们在一起度过了一段美好的时光。我也没有对他们有一点了解，但他们能够告诉我他们的个人故事，他们作为年轻母亲每天面对的是什么。

That was when I was like, 'Why can't we take all these things that are happening to us and present them and tell our mothers, our traditional leaders, that these are the wrong things?' It was a scary thing to do, because these traditional leaders, they are already accustomed to the things that have been there for ages. A hard thing to change, but a good thing to try.

那时候我就想，‘为什么我们不能把发生在我们身上的所有这些事情呈现出来，告诉我们的母亲，我们的长辈，这些都是错误的事情？’这是一件可怕的事情，因为这些传统领袖，他们已经习惯了已经存在了很久的事情。很难改变，但值得尝试。

So we tried. It was very hard, but we pushed. And I'm here to say that in my community, it was the first community after girls pushed so hard to our traditional leader, and our leader stood up for us and said no girl has to be married before the age of 18.

所以我们试过了。很难，但我们努力了。我在这里要说的是，在我的家乡里，这是第一个女孩向长辈们竭力争取之后的家乡，我们的领导者为我们挺身而出，并说，没有哪个女孩必须在18岁之前结婚。

In my community, that was the first time a community, they had to call the bylaws, the first bylaw that protected girls in our community.

在我的家乡，那是第一次在一个集体里，他们不得不称之为规章制度，第一个保护我们社区女孩的规章制度。

We did not stop there. We forged ahead. We were determined to fight for girls not just in my community, but even in other communities. When the child marriage bill was being presented in February, we were there at the Parliament house. Every day, when the members of Parliament were entering, we were telling them, 'Would you please support the bill?'

我们没有就此止步。我们前进了。我们决心不仅在我的社区，甚至在其他社区为女孩而战。二月份提出童婚法案时，我们在议会大厦。每天，当议员们进来的时候，我们都在告诉他们，“请你支持这项法案好吗？”

And we don't have much technology like here, but we have our small phones. So we said, 'Why can't we get their numbers and text them?' So we did that. It was a good thing. So when the bill passed, we texted them back, 'Thank you for supporting the bill.' And when the bill was signed by the president, making it into law, it was a plus. Now, in Malawi, 18 is the legal marriage age, from 15 to 18.

我们没有像这里这样的科技，但我们有小型手机。所以我们说，“为什么我们不能问到他们的号码并给他们发短信呢？”于是我们就这么做了。这是件好事。因此，当法案通过时，我们给他们发短信，“谢谢你支持法案。”当总统签署法案，使之成为法律时，这是一个加分。现在，在马拉维，18岁是法定结婚年龄，从15岁到18岁。

It's a good thing to know that the bill passed, but let me tell you this: There are countries where 18 is the legal marriage age, but don't we hear cries of women and girls every day? Every day, girls' lives are being wasted away. This is high time for leaders to honor their commitment. In honoring this commitment, it means keeping girls' issues at heart every time. We don't have to be subjected as second, but they have to know that women, as we are in this room, we are not just women, we are not just girls, we are extraordinary. We can do more.

知道法案通过是件好事，但让我告诉你：有些国家的法定结婚年龄是18岁，但我们不是每天都听到妇女和女孩的哭声吗？每天，女孩们的生命都在被浪费。现在是领导人履行承诺的时候了。为了履行这一承诺，这意味着每次都要把女孩的问题放在心上。我们不必被当作第二个，但他们必须知道，女人，因为我们在这个房间里，我们不仅仅是女人，我们不仅仅是女孩，我们是非凡的。我们可以做得更多。

And another thing for Malawi, and not just Malawi but other countries: The laws which are there, you know how a law is not a law until it is enforced? The law which has just recently passed and the laws that in other countries have been there, they need to be publicized at the local level, at the community level, where girls' issues are very striking. Girls face issues, difficult issues, at the community level every day.

对于马拉维，不仅仅是马拉维，还有其他国家，还有另一件事：那里的法律，你知道法律在执行之前不是法律吗？最近刚刚通过的法律和其他国家的法律需要在地方一级、基层社区进行宣传，因为那里的女童问题非常突出。女孩每天在基层社区都面临各种问题，困难的问题。

So if these young girls know that there are laws that protect them, they will be able to stand up and defend themselves because they will know that there is a law that protects them.

所以，如果这些年轻女孩知道有法律保护她们，她们就能站起来为自己辩护，因为她们会知道有法律保护她们。

And another thing I would say is that girls' voices and women's voices are beautiful, they are there, but we cannot do this alone. Male advocates, they have to jump in, to step in and work together. It's a collective work. What we need is what girls elsewhere need: good education, and above all, not to marry whilst 11.

我想说的另一件事是，女孩的声音和女人的声音都是美丽的，她们是存在的，但我们不能单独做到这一点。男性倡导者，他们必须插手，介入，共同努力。这是一项集体工作。我们需要的是其他地方的女孩所需要的：良好的教育，最重要的是，不要在11岁时结婚。

And furthermore, I know that together, we can transform the legal, the cultural and political framework that denies girls of their rights. I am standing here today and declaring that we can end child marriage in a generation. This is the moment where a girl and a girl, and millions of girls worldwide, will be able to say, 'I will marry when I want.'

此外，我知道，我们能够共同改变剥夺女孩权利的法律、文化和政治框架。我今天站在这里宣布，我们可以在一代人内结束童婚。在这个时刻，一个女孩和一个女孩，以及全世界数以百万计的女孩，将能够说：“我想结婚就结婚。”

Thank you.

非常感谢。