From TrustLaw: “BANGKOK – The women from Myanmar, some arriving as young as 14, went to China with dreams of better-paid jobs that would help lift their families out of poverty. Instead, upon arrival they are forced to marry. The men, often poor farmers, find Chinese brides hard to come by because cultural preference and a … Continue reading »
Tagged with Child Bride …
Girls Just Want to be Girls
From the Huffington Post, 9/21/11: “You might think a nine year old girl is too young to be married, but in some parts of the world, this is the common age of betrothal. The odds are that for ten million of the world’s adolescent and teenage girls one in three girls marry before age 18 … Continue reading »
Child brides’ ‘silent health crisis’
From SOS Children’s Villages: “Child marriage is one of the biggest barriers to worldwide progress, rights groups say. Every three seconds a girl under 18 is married, about 10 million a year. Mostly it happens without the girl’s agreement and to a much older man in Africa, the Middle East or South Asia, according to … Continue reading »
Child “drought brides” sold secretly in Kenya
From Reuters: “It’s done in the dark,” said Fatuma Ahmed, squatting inside her makeshift stick shelter. “Some people sell their daughters at a tender age so they can get food. It’s common but people are silent about it.” Prolonged drought in northern Kenya has pushed many families, like widow Ahmed and her seven children, toward … Continue reading »
The Lives of Child Brides, as Captured Through a Photographer’s Lens
From PBS Newshour: “The practice of child marriage is far more common throughout the world than many might suspect. According to UNICEF, as many as 50 million girls in developing countries were married before they turned 18 and 100 million more are expected to marry in the next decade. Child brides can be as young … Continue reading »
World turning blind eye to 10 million child brides each year
From The Guardian: One girl below the age of 18 is married off every three seconds worldwide, according to a community development charity which is calling for the British government to help end child marriage. Plan UK will publish a report this week entitled Breaking Vows which states that 10 million under 18s become child … Continue reading »
Ethiopian girls fight child marriages
From BBC News: “I wanted to get an education but my parents were determined to marry me off,” says Himanot Yehewala, an Ethiopian girl who was married five years ago at the age of 13. “I tried to run away but my mother said she would kill herself if I did not marry him.” “I … Continue reading »
UNICEF says one-third of world’s child brides from India
From Reuters: MUMBAI, Oct 6 – More than a third of the world’s child brides are from India, leaving children at an increased risk of exploitation despite the Asian giant’s growing modernity and economic wealth, according to a UNICEF report. Nearly 25 million women in India were married in the year 2007 by the age of … Continue reading »
World Vision Report: Child Bride Abduction
World Vision Report story: In Ethiopia, by law a woman has to be 18 years old to get married, but local custom in some remote areas rules the day. Many girls, sometimes as young as 10 to 13, are abducted by kidnappers who want a wife, but can’t afford the dowry. Once a girl is … Continue reading »