[The] U.K. has been dealing with this issue head on for years. They’ve passed national legislation, they’ve created a forced marriage unit and a forced marriage hotline. There are training manuals for educators, healthcare providers, social services providers, lawyers and there are resources for both the advocates and victims. In the U.S., we have none of that.

Alanen predicts that U.S. advocacy around the issue of forced marriage will increase dramatically in the coming years.  READ MORE: Forced Marriages Still an Ugly Secret, By Charundi Panagoda, IPS (January 26, 2012).

READ MORE: US father visits kidnapped sons in Egypt, bikya masr (January 17, 2012).

I was 14 years when my father married me off to Mashamba, a churchman… That man is old enough to be my father, but he was determined to have a minor like me for a wife. I could not stomach being forced into a romantic relationship with such a man who has lost all his teeth due to old age… Mashamba ordered me to go into the bedroom and sleep with him. Being a child who knew nothing about men, Mashamba undressed me and pushed me on the bed…and eventually got on top of me to force penetration. Being scared, I screamed and he released his grip. He was infuriated by my actions and he started beating…me. I was injured on the back. He wanted to force himself on me, but I resisted. I pushed open the door and got out of the house naked. This happened every night for the two months that I was under his custody. He would end up beating me, forcing me to flee from the house… I resorted to taking refuge in a nearby forest… He reported the incident to my father and I was thoroughly beaten. The next day I was given the same room to sleep with him, I resisted his sexual advances and woke up early and ran away from our home. My grandmother gave me $5 for bus fare to Mutare, where [Mr. Chidowe] helped me by reporting the case to the police. They took care of me and sent me back to school. I am an isolated case because I had the rare guts to fight the injustice, and was lucky to escape…the rapist. Many unfortunate girls are dying in silence and someone must come to their rescue.

According to Manica Post, police have launched an investigation into the matter – Mashamba faces charges of sexual abuse and the girl’s father faces physical abuse charges. 

READ MORE: GIRL MARRIED OFF AT 14: Her father was paid $70 as lobola, Manica Post (January 10, 2012).

The United States lags more than a decade behind the United Kingdom and a number of other countries in dealing with forced marriage.  Because the U.S. movement to address the problem is being led by nongovernmental agencies with limited resources, our pro bono partners are absolutely critical to amplifying our capacity and enabling us to make rapid progress… The pro bono work they’re doing on forced marriage is especially rewarding because this is uncharted terrain in the United States and we face incredibly complex legal and policy challenges to addressing the problem.  We have a tremendous amount of work ahead, and we have to work quickly because the lives of thousands of young women facing forced marriages hang in the balance.

Pro bono attorney Ella Shenhav added, “It’s very satisfying to be working towards something that can actually change people’s lives.  [This project] will affect thousands of people . . . and give a voice to women and girls who haven’t had a voice.” 

Kudos to Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.; Jones Day; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Hunton & Williams LLP; K&L Gates LLP; Latham & Watkins LLP; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; and Kirkland & Ellis LLP!  And, special thanks from GJI to the attorneys of Kilpatrick Townsend, whose invaluable pro bono legal support empowers us and advances our mission.

READ MORE: Forced Marriage in the U.S., The PBEye, Pro Bono Institute (January 3, 2012).

According to reports from multiple Afghan authorities, Sahar’s in-laws had locked her in a toilet after she resisted their efforts to force her into prostitution to earn money for them.  Director of the Women’s Affairs Department in Baghlan, Rahima Zarifi, told MSNBC World News that Sahar had been severely tortured, physically and mentally.  Police told the BBC that Sahar’s nails and clumps of her hair had been pulled out, and chunks of her flesh were cut out with pliers.  Officials in Baghlan province told MSNBC that Sahar’s in-laws kept her in a basement for six months, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers.  A week after her rescue, Sahar was reportedly still covered in scars and bruises, with one eye still swollen shut.  Sahar is receiving medical care and treatment in a Kabul hospital.

A special 10-man police unit has been set up to hunt for Sahar’s husband and others behind her torture, Afghan officials told the BBC.  Although Sahar’s mother-in-law, sister-in-law and father-in-law have been arrested, her husband, Ghulam Sakhi, has managed to elude authorities.  An interior ministry spokesman told BBC News, “This is incredibly serious and not acceptable and all those responsible will be brought in to make an example to others.”  Baghlan governor, Munshi Abdul Majid, told The New York Times, “This is an un-Islamic and inhuman act.”

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission registered 1,026 cases of violence against women and girls in the second quarter of 2011, alone.  According to MSNBC World News, many women and girls are afraid to flee because, in Afghanistan, running away from an abusive husband is considered a moral crime, grounds for imprisonment.

We are exhausted. We informed parents about problems arising out of child marriage and in many cases, we stop such marriages. But we couldn’t bring down the number of child marriages here. So we have chosen to target children directly.

Lilly’s letter provides kids with a mobile phone number and promises to protect the sender’s identity.  READ MORE: Letter to students to check child marriage, Deccan Chronicle (December 31, 2011).

READ MORE: American Father Fights to Bring Children Home From Egypt, ABC News (January 3, 2012).

What do you think?  With international parental kidnapping on the rise, how far should airlines be required to go to prevent child abduction?

16 is also the minimum legal age for a girl to marry in Washington, DC (with parental consent), and the District is one of a handful of U.S. jurisdictions where forced marriage is a crime.  Yet, we recently brought you the story of a thirteen-year-old girl who arrived in the U.S. only to be forced into a marriage with a much older man.  Her new husband enrolled her in a Washington D.C. area school by saying he was her father, only to rape her every night when she came home.  

From a child bride’s perspective, the legal validity of her marriage may be of little consequence if her husband, parents and in-laws endorse the validity of the union.  Her tender years will not protect her from their expectations and demands that she consummate the marriage, bear children, and perform all of the duties of an adult wife and mother.  The power dynamics characteristic of early marriages where the husband is significantly older leave many child brides without the sway to negotiate for abstinence, safe sex or control over their reproductive activities.  Geography, likewise, has little bearing on the suffering of a child bride trapped in a forced marriage to a much older man.  Notwithstanding the relative availability of protective laws and resources from one place to the next, the harmful consequences that befall a child bride before help arrives vary little whether she resides in the U.S. capital or Afghanistan’s.  Advocates and policymakers leading both countries’ nascent efforts to eliminate harmful marriage practices must place heavy emphasis on early detection and prevention.

READ MORE: Husband, 60, Wife, 8, By Rebecca Murray, IPS (December 29, 2011).