Professional stakeholders’ perceptions of child marriage in Lebanon among Syrian refugees

Though eradicating child marriage is part of Goal Five of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and some progress has been made, Lebanon struggles with ending child marriage within its borders, primarily due to the many Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon during and after the Syrian crisis that started in 2011. This study aimed to explore Lebanese professional stakeholders’ perceptions of child marriage in Lebanon and identify potential gaps in services and interventions currently used to combat child marriage. An interpretive description (ID) approach guided data collection and analysis, combining semi-structured interviews with purposively selected professional stakeholders, document analysis, and reflexive journaling. Field notes were also used to orient data collection and analysis. Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted using a purposive sample of professional stakeholders in Lebanon with a professional interest in child marriage. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Four significant themes related to the perceptions of causal pathways to child marriage in Lebanon were identified: 1) the financial burden of girls; 2) concerns around girls’ safety, security, and protecting their honor (including protecting them from potential rape); 3) Syrian religious traditions, customs, and practices; and 4) the lack of awareness of the dangers and consequences of child marriage. Findings indicate that the interventions currently being used or proposed are not aligned with the professional stakeholders’ perceptions of the causal pathways to child marriage. We argue that professional stakeholders’ excessive focus on public information campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of child marriage as the primary intervention demonstrates a disregard for some of the more significant issues. We argue for the need for professional stakeholders to 1) advocate for a minimum age of marriage law in Lebanon; 2) advocate for the criminalization of child marriage in Lebanon; 3) implement poverty alleviation efforts within the Syrian community in Lebanon, and 4) provide more safety for girls within rural and refugee-populated areas within Lebanon, especially en-route to schools and within schools. By altering their approaches to interventions, Lebanon's professional stakeholders working to eradicate child marriage will ostensibly have greater success in eliminating child marriage practices.