Unchained at a Glance
Mission
Unchained At Last is a survivor-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the United States through direct services and systems change.
Unchained provides crucial legal and social services, always for free, to help people in the U.S. to escape arranged/forced marriages and rebuild their lives. At the same time, Unchained pushes for social, policy and legal change; the organization started and now leads a growing national movement to eliminate child marriage in every U.S. state and at the federal level.
Why does Unchained exist?
People across the U.S. are being pressured, tricked, threatened or beaten into marriage. And those who face little or no choice when they enter a marriage typically face the same if they want to leave it.
What are forced and child marriage?
In a forced marriage, one or both parties enters without full, free consent. Further, even if both parties enter a marriage with full, free consent, the union can later become a forced marriage if one or both parties is forced to stay in it. Forced marriage happens to both adults and children.
In a child marriage, one or both parties is under the age of 18. Child marriage can be — and often is — forced marriage.
Whom does Unchained serve?
Unchained serves mostly adult women, but also girls, LGBTQ individuals and others in the U.S., from any community, culture or religion, who are or have been pressured, bribed, tricked, threatened, beaten or otherwise forced into marriage — whether the person has been married for several decades and has many children or is facing an imminent or eventual arranged/forced marriage.
Unchained provides services regardless of immigration, religion or income status (though some income guidelines apply for some direct services) and regardless of sexual orientation.
Unchained also serves those from the U.S. who are taken to another country for an arranged/forced marriage, and those who are brought from overseas to the U.S. for such a marriage.
