In a society still ruled by caste, couples fight families and courts to make a life together.
Tag: child marriage
Though mainly associated today with Islamic countries, underage marriage is increasingly being reported in Colombia, and other places in Latin America, often with a financial motivation pushing poorer families to effectively “sell” their daughters to older men.
Despite legal prohibitions, several African countries continue to suffer high rates of child marriage. Now, tribal leaders are teaming up with civil society, taking as many routes as necessary to find solutions.
A 15-year-old girl is murdered by her parents in Iran, three years after her arranged marriage, in yet another possible “honor” killing the Islamic Republic is loath to punish.
The Islamic Republic allows girls as young as 13 to marry legally. On top of that, a lack of enforcement means that elementary school age children may be forced into marriage as well.
MINGORA — At 13, Hadiqa Bashir is herself just a child, but she’s already working to save girls from child marriage in rural Pakistan. Though it’s illegal in Pakistan, marrying young children to much older men is still widely practiced in the Swat Valley. Visiting Hadiqa Bashir today is a young girl, Shabana, who is with her mother. A white gauze covers her nose, and she explains the horrific reason why. “My mother-in-law asked my husband to complete his job today and she left the house,” Shabana says. “I had my young son with me, and my husband asked his […]
DAMASCUS — As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, a teenage girl from one of Syria’s besieged cities, shares her stories of life in the war. She recently moved to Damascus to continue her education, in the face of the ongoing war that has destroyed her local schools. Her father was killed in the violence and she now lives with distant relatives in the capital. Earlier installments can be read here and here. He is a handsome man in his 50s, […]