A 13-year-old girl in Bangladesh has been granted custody of her infant son, a rare judicial outcome in a country where child marriage remains deeply entrenched despite legal prohibitions.
The High Court in Dhaka issued the ruling this week, overturning a lower court decision that had previously placed the child in state care. The mother, whose identity is withheld due to her age, was married off at 12—a practice that remains widespread in rural districts despite the national legal age of 18 for women.
Justice Naima Haider and Justice Kazi Zinat Hoque presided over the bench. They determined that the mother’s fundamental right to raise her child superseded the state’s concerns regarding her own age and socioeconomic status.
“The law recognizes the bond between mother and child as paramount,” said petitioner lawyer Mohammad Ashraf Ali. “The court looked past the circumstances of her marriage and focused entirely on the rights of the infant.”
The case highlights the systemic friction between Bangladesh’s Child Marriage Restraint Act and the harsh realities of rural life. While the government has pledged to end child marriage by 2041, activists argue that enforcement is nearly non-existent. For the 13-year-old mother, the legal victory is a reprieve, yet she returns to a community that views her marriage and motherhood as both a social norm and a tragedy.
The court has ordered local social services to monitor the mother and child, ensuring they receive basic nutrition and support. It is a fragile solution for a situation born from a broken system.
The mother will now return to her family home with the infant, though the legal battle has done little to address the broader cycle of early marriage that put her in this position in the first place.
