Dubai: A child marriage is meaningless and to the couple it will be something like playing house, said a Dubai-based psychologist with reference to the two Syrian children who are engaged.

"The children will grow up as siblings and as they turn into adults their feelings towards each other will most likely change," said Dr Raymond Hamdan, clinical and forensic psychologist.

He said in some societies such marriages are traditionally imposed on the children and it could lead to conflict in feelings.

"The chances of such a marriage being successful are very, very low," he said.

The marriageable age by law varies from country to country and after the Child Protection Law was recommended by the UN, it is after puberty in many countries in the Middle East.

In India, child marriages are common in the tradition-bound villages which are out of reach of the law. The children are married off with much fanfare and it is common to see pictures of the young couple looking either bewildered or the girl playing with her doll during the engagement ceremony.

Rights violations

The International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) says the children are vulnerable to violation of their health and rights in many countries and considers such marriages as forced because the young do not have the legal capacity to disobey their elders or give or withhold consent.

Such marriages of girls before puberty are common in many developing countries and is done to protect their virginity or the family's honour. Parents feel forced to marry their daughter early because they fear for her safety or for economic security, according to the IWHC.

The coalition says that worldwide, marriage laws and practices are diverse. In most developing countries about 70 per cent of young women marry or start living with a partner before the age of 18.

The coalition warns that child marriage is the major cause of worldwide pregnancies before the age of fifteen.

"Young brides become sexually active as soon as they are married, sometimes before their first menstruation."

In 1994, the UN Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women issued a nonbinding recommendation that countries adopt a minimum age for marriage of 18 years for both sexes.

But the laws are ignored or easily circumvented, according to the Women's Coalition.