The New York Daily News today continued to advance the national conversation Unchained leads about forced marriage in America, with a story titled “Unchained at Last founded by ex-Orthodox Jewish bride aids women and girls escape forced marriages.”
The story describes the traumatic events that led Fraidy Reiss to found Unchained in 2011. Reiss’ family arranged her marriage when she was 19, to a man who showed himself to be violent only one week after their wedding. She was trapped in her abusive marriage for 12 years; when she finally escaped with her two daughters, her family shunned her.
Reiss managed to rebuild her life, become financially independent and even buy a small home for herself and her children. “At the closing, I realized I had finally made it,” she says in the Daily News story. “But what about the women who have not?”
For those women, Reiss founded Unchained, which remains the only organization in the US dedicated to helping women and girls escape forced marriages.
“Unchained provides one-stop shopping for girls and women in forced marriages,” the story explains. “It hooks up clients to pro bono divorce and immigration lawyers, psychotherapists, career counselors, English teachers, even driving instructors. It helps them find apartments, clothing, dishes, furniture and everything else they need to make a break.”
Read the full story here.