An Exploration of Social Norms That Restrict Girls’ Sexuality and Facilitate Child Marriage in Bangladesh to Inform Policies and Programs

Objectives

The study aimed to identify and explain the social norms that restrict girls’ sexuality and sustain child marriage in rural northern Bangladesh. It sought to understand how expectations around girls’ mobility, interactions with boys, and participation in marriage decision making operate in everyday life. The authors intended to generate evidence to inform policies and programmes, including CARE’s Tipping Point initiative, on how to more effectively address the social and gender norms that drive child marriage.

Findings

The study found that social norms in the study communities are strongly oriented toward controlling girls’ sexuality in order to protect family honour. Girls are expected to stay close to home, move outside mainly for schooling, avoid social contact with boys, and accept that fathers and other elders decide if and when they marry. When girls are seen as moving too freely, talking with boys, or asserting views about their own marriage, families face intense gossip, stigma, and questions about both the girl’s chastity and the parents’ respectability.

In this context, child marriage is used as a preventive strategy to avoid suspected transgression and as a corrective response when norms are perceived to have been violated. While schooling has expanded and some mobility for education is now tolerated, these changes have not altered the underlying belief that girls’ sexuality must be tightly controlled, so increased opportunities can actually trigger pressure for earlier marriage if they are seen as risky.

Recommendations

The authors recommend that efforts to reduce child marriage in Bangladesh must explicitly confront and shift the social norms that link girls’ sexuality to family honour, rather than relying only on education, skills-building, or economic opportunities. Programmes should work with girls, boys, parents, and community leaders to reshape expectations around girls’ mobility, interaction with male peers, and their right to participate in marriage decisions. Legal reforms and school-based interventions need to be complemented by sustained norm-change strategies that make it acceptable for girls to delay marriage, pursue education and work, and exercise greater agency without families fearing social sanction or loss of status.