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Subscribe to RSSMarried at the age of 8. That fact alone is hard to fathom. It's even more difficult to stomach when you think of the resulting forced sex, physical abuse and early pregnancies that often result. But for girls in more than 50 countries in the developing world, and for a minority in the developed world, this is their reality. The reality of child marriage.
Stephanie Sinclair / VIl
Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Damarda Village, Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2005. Ghulam said she is sad to be getting engaged as she wanted to be a teacher.
Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair has been documenting this issue around the world since 2003. A large body of her work was published last year in National Geographic.
We asked Sinclair to tell us more about her reporting:
How did you come up with this story idea and how long have you been reporting it?
This project began in 2003, after I met several girls in Herat, Afghanistan who had attempted suicide by self-immolation. I noticed that many of the girls who had set themselves on fire had been married at very young ages, in many cases prepubescent. It was the first time I’d ever encountered anyone who had been married so young. This phenomenon seemed to link many of these girls and this intense act of desperation. I couldn’t help but feel a responsibility to research and document whatever it was that would make these girls take such drastic measures. The resulting project has taken almost a decade to date, and I am still working on the issue. What makes it so complicated is its prevalence in more than 50 countries worldwide. To document it properly, one needs to address the many cultural reasons behind the issue as well as the differing impacts on the varying societies.
How many different countries did you travel to for this story, and how did you gain access to these sensitive stories and events?
I have documented this issue in Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Ethiopia and Yemen. Access has always been incredibly difficult for several reasons. The most obvious obstacle is that parents and families innately know that what they are doing can harm their children. But they continue this harmful traditional practice because they may feel societal pressures, have concerns for their safety and well being should they remain unmarried, or may even need to simply sell their girls in a desperate move to feed their other children. Fortunately, almost every image in this project was done with the help of the locals living within these societies. They wanted this issue to get support so they could be further empowered to combat child marriage. Those people were key in helping me gain access, and telling these stories would have been impossible without them.
Stephanie Sinclair / VII
Nujood Ali was ten when she fled her abusive, much older husband and took a taxi to the courthouse in Sanaa, Yemen. The girl's courageous act and the landmark legal battle that ensued turned her into an international heroine for women's rights. Now divorced, she is back home with her family and attending school again.
What is most disturbing to you about child marriage and what would you most like people to know about it?
There are many disturbing factors related to child marriage. But I think the thing that we must acknowledge is that in most cases these young children do not want to be married. They want normal lives — to play with their friends, be educated and have a full adolescence. These marriages rob many girls of their innocence, many times before puberty, and this is something that as a global society we cannot tolerate. The bottom line is child marriage isn't just harmful to the girls involved. It's at the root of so many other societal ills: poverty, disease, maternal mortality, infant mortality, violence against women. All of those are symptoms connected to the same problem: child marriage. If you solve the child marriage problem, these other issues benefit as well.
Is there a solution?
A multifaceted approach is needed to address the issue of child marriage. In fact, yesterday Sec. Hillary Clinton announced a USAID-sponsored pilot program in Bangladesh that will work with religious leaders, media, local governments and NGOs to foster community support for an end to child marriage. However education is still the single most protective factor against this practice. This means keeping the children in school as long as possible, as well as educating the communities about its harmful impact on the health of their girls, their grandchildren, as well as their societies as a whole.
I also strongly believe there is not just a need for awareness-raising and prevention work, but we must find ways to help these girls who are already in these marriages — be it through giving financial incentives to their families to let them stay in school, or vocational training so they can have more say in their lives and households. Quality medical treatment is also needed for girls who are giving birth at these young ages. These girls need long-term solutions. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. But there seems to be a growing movement aimed at ending child marriage. In fact, at yesterday's State Department announcement, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of The Elders, announced a very ambitious goal: to end the practice by 2030. If this issue remains a global priority, I'm optimistic that we can meet that deadline.
To mark the first inaugural International Day of the Girl Child on October 11, 2012, the United Nations Population Fund will partner with VII Photo to host an exhibition at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to present the personal narrative of the girls themselves. The hope is that their stories, presented in photography and video productions by Stephanie Sinclair and Jessica Dimmock, will renew global attention toward this critical issue and accountability across the international community. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will be among many prominent figures attending the opening.
- Follow the campaign at Too Young to Wed and tooyoungtowed.wordpress.com
- See additional images from Sinclair's project and read more about child marriage at National Geographic Magazine
- View a video including interviews with some of the child brides at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
- Read 'In Niger, child marriage on rise due to hunger' in PhotoBlog
Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter
Leave a Comment:
Read this book - "Half The Sky", then see the recent PBS mini-series of the same title. What an eye opener. It's the world's greatest tragedy right now: The abuse, rape, and selling into child marriages or sex trafficking of countless millions of young women. Find out what you can do to help. We have to make the world realize that the only way to stop this is to enact severe laws against these outrages. Then, enforce them, and take away the overt encouragement in so many societies that still allow this heinous behavior. Please help - the world needs your assistance more than ever.
While I never read the book I watched the documentary on PBS, and indeed it is an eye opener. The stories covered in the book should jolt all of us out or our comfort zones.
Where is Hillary? where are the so called human rights organizations? where are the feminist movements?
The victimized child is pimped by her parents. For bare survival. By the same economic need, young boys are made available for male western tourists as sex-dish. Obviously, neither Religion nor local culture have anything to do with it. Economic pressure destroys whatever culture or faith was left.
Do I sound as a Marxist? Well, perhaps I am one. Yes. they still exist.
Bare survival, my arz! You sound like a loser trying to make any excuse for this type of atrocity!
how hard would a list of the 50+ been?
is there a country that someone is trying not to offend? or protect?
I try to be open minded and tolerant of other cultures, but some things are just wrong. It is no wonder the
Taliban flourishes in the insane asylum that is Afghanistan.
SOMEONE STEP IN NOW - THIS NEEDS TO STOP!
Lets rescue these children!!!!
ANGELNA???....BRAD?????SEAN PENN?????............this is something that is right in line with the other wonderful things that you do overseas....please consider this!!!
This problem has been around as long as society and war have existed and will likely be around long after I am gone. Granted, it is deplorable and I feel for the girls, but these are country issues and not issues of the U.S. We can't fix the world and I don't see giving money to fix an enormous problem that can't be fixed. We can't convert the Taliban, and you can't fix this global problem. Once we leave Afghnaistan, it will get worse. These problems can only be fixed through evolution of these poor cave-dwelling, backwards and morally depraved clans and societies.
That has got to be the biggest towel I have ever seen on a man's head!!
The sick Ba....rds that marry these young girls are nothing more then pedophiles. SICK OLD MEN WHO CAN ONLY GET OFF WITH CHILDREN! Desguise it under the name of religion is pathetic. These sick F...KS can't even admit what they are PATHETIC, DISGUSTING OLD MEN WITH A THING FOR LITTLE GIRLS. Can't admit or face what you are....we have a word for that COWARD! Can't handle a woman of your own age so you have to ruin the life of an innocent child. And, to the parents who allow it....YOUR JUST AS SICK AND TWISTED and PATHETIC!! Thank GOD I live in a civilized country where scumb like this get's his ass put in jail!!!
How can the Muslim world ever expect the rest of the world to accept and respect their religion when child "Rape" is an acceptable part of their religion. Mohammed was a Pedophile and his teaching promote this practice. Those "virgins" that await them in haven for blowing themselves are all 12.
Have you ever noticed how Obama hangs onto one of his girls? Something is strange here because this is not normal.
That's just plain crazy.... what you some Tea Party nutcase?
SS - You sound like a republican... cold as ice never knowing loving normal human touch as a child from your parents. It's proven this kind of upbringing stunts the mental capacity of adults for reasoning and the ability to judge simple situations as good or bad... as truth or a lie. Hence the proof in your filthy comment here and the amazing group idiocy of supporting Romney.
A father that holds on to one of his girls, who's shows affection and is there for his child. Protects her and loves her... It's sad that that is starnge. We need more fathers like that so it won't be strange any more.
okay seattle...thats just stupid. i am anti-obama big time....but come on dude, what the hell are you getting at with that comment.
I love my daughter and not afraid to show it, you are a sick @!$%# Seattle and probably a pedophile yourself. You are going too low, hating Obama is one thing but to accuse him of something else is going way out there.
I don't know if you are just trying to be controversial and irk people, or if you truly believe what you wrote. Either way, you are a pathetic, sick individual.
Pedophiles and rapist hiding behind Religion!
It's simply pure evil. People know right from wrong no matter what culture. It's called your conscience. You can talk about "education" and "poverty" all you want. But both rich and poor alike can choose good... and they can choose evil. Any man who marries a little girl is choosing evil.
I simply count my blessings that I and my daughters were born in the U.S. where the Judeo-Christian influence still has power.
This is the most digusting practice and should never be allowed. People should marry because they want to, and children should not be forced to marry...it makes my heart sad to see this photo...angels in heaven must be crying for these little girls. Where is the UN?
"Where is the U.N.?" Have you seen the list of U.N.-member nations? On it you will find nations where most of this forced-marriage/rape occurs. Don't look to the U.N. for help.
Look at Africa where millions of desperate children have been orphaned because both parents have died of AIDS. Yet what do men desire there? Young virgins -- because they know they won't have the AIDS virus. And will they take necessary measures to avoid infecting those poor girls (ie a condom)? No, because they don't want to. The U.S. has spent MILLIONS of dollars on AIDS awareness and education in Africa.... but those men still want virgins and still won't use condoms. They choose evil. And the only thing that trumps evil is the Word of God in man's heart.... not the "help" of the U.N.
Disgusting f*ing perverts. So scared of women they have to take little girls.
It's simply "legal" child molesting. Notice that all the men are "old" and marrying someone who is a pre teen... Plain and simple, dirty old men.!!!!!
In Tennessee, Sex with a girl under 13 is considered felony rape always because of the assumption that a girl that young cannot make that decision. Why? Their children. Another puke story from the middle east.
Wow. Tennessee sure is advanced. Not.
what does that mean troll?
T
There are sick messed up people on every continent, in every
country, of every color and on every religion.
You want to point fingers at people who live in that area of the world
and call them savages. Does the US not have one of the most thriving sex trade industries?
Have you not heard about a football coach who just got 30-60 years for child
molestation? Have you not heard the many stories about Catholic priest sexually
abusing boys? It’s all messed up but damn… At least they choose girls over
there.
That last piece "at least they choose girls"--is maybe the sickest thing I have read on any of these boards. Is that a sick joke? It would be worse if they were raping boys? You are a moron. An eight year old girl's vagina is no more made for intercourse than her ear. You would be nearly killing her. Get a grip.
This is very true, older men marrying (raping) younger girls for their pleasure. Mohammed (57) did it for his pleasure, so called marring Aisha (9). Every muslim think they have a right to marry multiple wives in the name of religion, every time they get married, girls gets younger and younger.
I am a muslim and this is a sicking behavior, Islam allow it and people take advantage in the name of religion.
Islam is a totally debauched religion for alowing such unspeakable depravity.
is this a promo for "taken 2" ?
...liam neeson breaks lots of bad guy bones in that movie !
And they have come here to the US, and we are supporting them with our welfare, and we are supposed to honor their "customs". Suckers, all of us.
Is this what they mean when they talk about
"Traditional Marriage "
and "arranged marriage"
This is not a cultural issue, or a I'm right and you are wrong issue...ANY culture/country that would legally allow this kind of thing needs to be wiped off the map and started anew. To "disguise" sickness and abuse in the name of religion or culture is abominable. Poverty or not, "selling" off an 8-year old for marriage is reason to make sand out of rocks. Look, by the way, at the countries stuff like this happens in...most of them are not worth a squat to start with...........
Younger girls are used as objects, word marriage is used to cover raping a child. Mohammed did it to Aisha, now his follower taking advantage in his footsteps.
@can we find balance,
And that creep was locked away, not commended you stupid snot rag!