“I was told it was non-negotiable,” Amina says.
“They said refusal would bring a curse upon my mother and ruin our standing in the community. When I argued that I wanted to enter university, I was told that a woman’s ambition begins and ends with honor to her family.”
Her account, alongside those of Grace and Akosua, describes pressure to marry through family obligation, financial dependence and fear of rejection. Their names are pseudonyms.
The accounts describe different experiences: resisting a proposed marriage, an intervention before a child marriage, and a marriage followed by a search for legal help. They should not be read as a measure of how common forced marriage is in Ghana.
Consent and coercion
A family’s involvement in arranging a marriage is not the same as forcing someone to marry. The distinction is whether the people involved can freely choose.
In Ghana, section 109 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), makes causing a person to marry against their will through duress a misdemeanour. For children, section 14 of the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), prohibits forced betrothal, dowry transactions and marriage, and sets the minimum marriage age at 18.
The women’s accounts describe pressure that did not begin and end with physical force.
Amina’s account
Amina describes being pressed to marry after her father’s death. In her account, money spent by the prospective husband became an argument against her refusal.
“The pressure wasn’t physical at first—it was emotional conditioning. Everyday I was reminded how much he had spent on my father’s funeral. My uncle told me that saying ‘no’ meant I was ungrateful and that I was killing my mother with distress. When I realized my quiet protests were being ignored, I packed my certificate and fled to Accra to live with a former school classmate. It took two years of total isolation from my extended family before they stopped demanding my return.”
Her account describes leaving before the proposed marriage took place, rather than escaping an existing marriage.
Grace’s account
Grace describes being promised in marriage while she was still at school. She says a teacher noticed her absences and sought help.
“In my village, people talked about it as if it were already settled. I was told I would leave school after Junior High School to join his household. I didn’t know I had rights until a senior teacher noticed my sudden drop in school attendance and asked what was wrong. She contacted the local Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU). Officers came to our house with community elders. Once my parents understood that forcing a child into marriage carries prison time, they backed down. But living in the community afterwards was incredibly hard for a long time.”
This is Grace’s account of an intervention, not a finding that an offence was prosecuted. Section 15 of the Children’s Act provides for a fine, imprisonment or both for contravening these protections; imprisonment is not automatic. Her description also separates stopping the proposed marriage from the difficulties she says followed in her community.
Akosua’s account
Akosua describes pressure to marry after becoming pregnant at university. She says she agreed to a ceremony because she feared losing her family’s support.
“When my family found out I was pregnant, the decision was taken completely out of my hands. My father insisted that we had to perform customary marriage rites immediately to prevent ‘bringing shame’ to the family name and our church congregation. When I told them I did not love the man and did not want to marry him, my parents threatened to disown me, cut off my tuition, and take custody of my unborn baby. Out of sheer panic, I agreed to the ceremony. It took three years of an abusive, unhappy marriage before I found the courage and legal backing to seek a legal annulment.”
Akosua describes seeking an annulment. Her account does not establish that a court granted one. The appropriate legal remedy depends on the marriage and the circumstances; the criminal prohibition on forced marriage should not be presented as an automatic annulment.
Finding protection
The three accounts describe different routes away from pressure: leaving, seeking help through a teacher, and obtaining legal support. They do not establish how accessible those routes are to other women, or how institutions respond in every case.
Ghana Police lists the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit helpline as 055-100-0900. Its official website describes DOVVSU’s services as free and includes support relating to physical, sexual, emotional and socio-economic abuse, as well as harmful cultural practices. This is an official service listing, not a guarantee of response time, emergency accommodation or a particular outcome.