Tehani, 8, Yemen. “Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him,” Tehani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for a portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their home in Hajjah.
cc: seun, lalasticlala

Rajani, 5, India. Long after midnight, Rajani is roused from sleep and carried by her uncle to her wedding. Child marriage is illegal in India, so ceremonies are often held in the wee hours of the morning. It becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer

Bibi Aisha, 19, Afghanistan. In a practice known as "baad," Bibi Aisha's father promised her to a Taliban fighter when she was 6 years old as compensation for a killing that a member of her family had committed. She was married at 16 and subjected to constant abuse. At 18, she fled the abuse but was caught by police, jailed and then returned to her family. Her father-in-law, husband and three other family members took her into the mountains, cut off her nose and her ears, and left her to die. “I was a woman exchanged for someone else’s wrongdoing. [My new husband] was looking for an excuse to beat me.”

Asia, 14, Yemen. Asia washes her newborn at home in Hajjah while her 2-year-old daughter plays. Asia is still bleeding and ill from childbirth, yet has no knowledge of how to care for herself or access to maternal health care.

Mejgon, 16, Afghanistan. Mejgon weeps in the arms of her case worker near fellow residents at an NGO shelter run by Afghan women in Herat, Afghanistan. Mejgon’s father sold her at the age of 11 to a 60-year-old man for two boxes of heroin.

Leyualem is transported by mule to her new home on her wedding day. The men later said the cloth was placed over her head so she would not be able to find her way back home, should she want to escape the marriage.

Sarita, 15, India. Sarita is seen in tears before she is sent to her new home with her new groom. The previous day, she and her 8-year-old sister Maya were married to sibling brothers.

Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, Afghanistan. Ghulam and Faiz sit for a portrait in her home before their wedding in Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of State report “Human Rights Practices for 2011,” approximately 60 percent of girls were married younger than the legal age of 16. Once the girl's father has agreed to the engagement, she is pulled out of school immediately.

Bishal, 15, and Surita, 16, Nepal. Bishal accepts gifts from visitors as his new bride, Surita, sits bored at her new home. Here in Nepal, as in many countries, not only girls, but boys too are married young.

Destaye, 11, and Addisu, 23, Ethiopia. Addisu and his new bride Destaye are married in a traditional Ethiopian Orthodox wedding in the rural areas outside the city of Gondar, Ethiopia. Community members said that because of his standing as a priest, Addisu’s bride had to be a virgin. This was the reason Destaye was given to him at such a young age.

raayah:
Bishal, 15, and Surita, 16, Nepal. Bishal accepts gifts from visitors as his new bride, Surita, sits bored at her new home. Here in Nepal, as in many countries, not only girls, but boys too are married young.

The boy and girl bride and groom in the accompanying photo be like.....

We don't want to be here....but our parents made us do this.

Sigh.

raayah:
Rajani, 5, India. Long after midnight, Rajani is roused from sleep and carried by her uncle to her wedding. Child marriage is illegal in India, so ceremonies are often held in the wee hours of the morning. It becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer

Five year old kid....that does not know her left from her right...married?

I respect all cultures, and all that....but this is ......

So wrong

raayah:
Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, Afghanistan. Ghulam and Faiz sit for a portrait in her home before their wedding in Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of State report “Human Rights Practices for 2011,” approximately 60 percent of girls were married younger than the legal age of 16. Once the girl's father has agreed to the engagement, she is pulled out of school immediately.

They look like father and daughter....not bride and groom.

(ie the picture).

And the funny thing is that she will be calling him daddy.....sigh.

Sighs
This is
I don't have the name for it
Am shivering

raayah:
Destaye, 11, and Addisu, 23, Ethiopia. Addisu and his new bride Destaye are married in a traditional Ethiopian Orthodox wedding in the rural areas outside the city of Gondar, Ethiopia. Community members said that because of his standing as a priest, Addisu’s bride had to be a virgin. This was the reason Destaye was given to him at such a young age.

Yes...they gave him a child...because the good Reverend ain't preaching from that bible hard enough at the young ladies......

Yes...the ladies in Rev Addisu's patch are all worshipers of our Lady Venus...or is it Lady Astarte? (And the men are all devotees of Zeus)...

Welll....as dem dash am eleven year old virgin.,....I hope say dem ready to dash am the money wey him go spend on cesarean delivery....because if he wants no complications when she is offloading the pickins....na money dem go spend.Anyway...as my oga used to say...if una fit climb woman...una fit take responsibilities for am(including VVF in this case... ).

Sometimes we Christians self and our holy holy......

These are stories that not only touch the hearts but paralyses the system....


What a world..

What a system!

Men!meen!meeeeeeen!

I don't blame those that hate and fight men .

All the atrocities humans have committed in the name of culture is enough to strike everyone dead. SMH. Its a sin to be a female in india and middle east. I weep for their girls.

Gosh , in tears right now, those poor little girls

jeeeeeeez!
that lil girl bathing her new born made me cry
These places are the worst to be born female

ma noro hia na eri alafia, umuazi ndea ana atagbuo oweha na ahuhu . chai!

Horrified!

bushdoc9919:

Five year old kid....that does not know her left from her right...married?
I respect all cultures, and all that....but this is ......

This I think is crazy, let's call a spade a spade.
What the f does a 5-yr old know. Wonder how a grown man would even ever imagine drilling such a minor.
Gross!

This is terrible! A 5 year old is a baby.

Dis is so barbaric. And so many families still practice such in dis 21st century. May God deliver us frm poverty

Some people shall not smell heaven, let alone be in one. Barbarians

this is sooo....
no words to describe this evil.

thank God for christianity

What sort of culture is this? This is just preposterous and inhuman. How can parents keep their hands at akimbo and let the child go through such ordeal? Oh gosh! I weep for the poor kids.

Where is Buhari and Aisha? this post is incomplete without them @OP

They're just children themselves

Now these kids are the ones to give you the REAL definition of suffer!
Chai! The heart of man is desperately wicked!!.

raayah:
Asia, 14, Yemen. Asia washes her newborn at home in Hajjah while her 2-year-old daughter plays. Asia is still bleeding and ill from childbirth, yet has no knowledge of how to care for herself or access to maternal health care.

14 and has a 2 year old daughter... so she became pregnant at 11 or 12... This is horrifying