The high prevalence of child marriage in many South Asian countries is usually attributed to poverty, lack of access to education and economic opportunities and gender inequitable cultural norms. Yet in Bangladesh, despite economic growth, mass female education and concerted efforts to eliminate child marriage, its prevalence remains very high. This paper explores community-level perceptions, attitudes and practices relating to child marriage in a rural setting in Bangladesh with the aim of understanding the collective discourses of child marriage in the country and identify the factors shaping these. The study was based on exploratory sequential mixed-method research, with qualitative data collected through group discussions and interviews with 64 participants and quantitative survey data from 3344 participants from the Rangpur district of northern Bangladesh in 2014. The findings suggest that, in addition to the already identified drivers, the notion of a ‘good match’, where the wife is subservient to her husband, is one of the main motivations for marrying off girls early in this region of Bangladesh. Reducing poverty and educating girls may not be adequate to address the persistent problem of child marriage in all Bangladeshi contexts and emphasis needs to be given to transforming the prevailing idea of a ‘good match’ to one of an ‘equal match’.

中文翻译：

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贫困、嫁妆和“好伴侣”：重新审视孟加拉国农村地区社区对童婚的看法和做法

许多南亚国家童婚的高流行通常归因于贫困、缺乏教育和经济机会以及性别不平等的文化规范。然而，在孟加拉国，尽管经济增长、大规模女性教育和消除童婚的共同努力，但其流行率仍然很高。本文探讨了孟加拉国农村环境中与童婚有关的社区层面的看法、态度和做法，旨在了解该国关于童婚的集体讨论，并确定影响这些讨论的因素。该研究基于探索性顺序混合方法研究，通过小组讨论和对 64 名参与者的访谈收集定性数据，以及 2014 年来自孟加拉国北部 Rangpur 区的 3344 名参与者的定量调查数据。调查结果表明，除了已经确定的驱动因素之外，“良好匹配”的概念妻子对丈夫的服从是孟加拉国这个地区早早嫁娶女孩的主要动机之一。减少贫困和教育女孩可能不足以解决孟加拉国所有情况下长期存在的童婚问题，需要强调将流行的“良好匹配”理念转变为“平等匹配”。妻子屈从于丈夫，这是孟加拉国这一地区早早嫁娶女孩的主要动机之一。减少贫困和教育女孩可能不足以解决孟加拉国所有情况下长期存在的童婚问题，需要强调将流行的“良好匹配”理念转变为“平等匹配”。妻子屈从于丈夫，这是孟加拉国这一地区早早嫁娶女孩的主要动机之一。减少贫困和教育女孩可能不足以解决孟加拉国所有情况下长期存在的童婚问题，需要强调将流行的“良好匹配”理念转变为“平等匹配”。