Did you know one of the gutsy women featured in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s recently published The Book of Gutsy Women is from Westfield, NJ? We’re talking about our founder/ executive director, Fraidy Reiss.
Join us and Fraidy at Westfield’s James Ward Mansion for a lively discussion of why the world needs gutsy women. Light refreshments will be served. Reserve your tickets now.
This is not a book club! You don’t have to read the book first; just come have a good time.
Gutsy Women Discussion
February 27, 2020
7:30-9:00 p.m.
James Ward Mansion, 169 East Broad St., Westfield, NJ
NOTE: Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women has been postponed until a yet-to-be-determined date in July. All side and parallel events, including our Woman @ CSW parallel event scheduled for March 12, have been canceled for now.
We will keep you updated as we get more information. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
As the United Nations launches the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women — the world’s largest annual gathering on women’s rights — we are launching a parallel event.
Join us for an exclusive screening of Woman, a gorgeous documentary film that examines the lives of hundreds of women around the world (including, briefly, our founder/executive director Fraidy Reiss). We’ll discuss the central question the film raises: How far have women come, and how far do they still have to go?
A parallel event to the 64th Session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
LOCATION: Lycée Français de New York, 505 E 75th St., NYC
DATE: TBD
TIME: 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
ADMISSION: Free
Light refreshments will be served. REGISTER NOW.
Woman, from filmmakers Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is based on interviews with some 2,000 women around the globe. In a world where women are forced to marry, deprived of an education, forbidden from going outside on their own and subjected to myriad other abuses, the film is a message of love and hope.
Hosted by Unchained At Last. Made possible by generous support from the international law firm White & Case. Co-sponsored by NGO CSW/NY.
WE DID IT! We just helped to end child marriage in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Gov. Albert Bryan just signed Sen. Javan James’ bill that we at Unchained had relentlessly promoted to end all marriage before 18 in the U.S. Virgin Islands. You will recall we even took one for the team last October and traveled to St. Thomas (someone’s gotta do it!) to meet one-on-one with legislators and testify in support of Bill #33-0109.
Now two U.S. states (Delaware and New Jersey) and two territories (Virgin Islands and American Samoa) have eliminated this human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives. Just 48 states and three territories to go …
We couldn’t lead the national movement to end child marriage without your support. Thank you for following/liking/sharing us on social media, heeding our calls to action and supporting us financially.
Once again, we at Unchained At Last are going to Chain-In to protest child marriage in the United States. This time we’re headed to St. Paul, MN
We’ll gather in the Minnesota state capitol Capitol Press Room (B971) wearing bridal gowns and veils, with our arms chained and mouths taped, to protest child marriage. Then we’ll march to the rotunda to urge legislators to pass HF745/SF1393, the simple, commonsense bill that would end child marriage in Minnesota. Will you join us?
February 13 | 2:30 p.m.
Minnesota State Capitol Room B971
75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, St. Paul
We provide the bridal gowns, veils and chains, all at no cost. All you need to do is register via the link below – and join us to make some noise!
Speakers include:
We lead a growing national movement to end child marriage in the United States by eliminating the legal loopholes in all 50 states and at the federal level that allow, and even encourage, child marriage.
Child marriage is often forced marriage, because children face overwhelming legal and practical barriers if they try to leave home, enter a domestic violence shelter, retain an attorney or bring a legal action such as a divorce before they turn 18. Further, child marriage destroys girls’ health, education and economic opportunities and significantly increases their risk of being beaten by their spouse.
The U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.” Let’s Chain-In to demand an end to this human-rights abuse in Minnesota.
Read more here about Chain-Ins, the powerful form of peaceful protest that we invented to raise awareness of forced and child marriage in the United States.
Learn more here about other ways you can help to end child marriage in the United States.
Our Executive Director Fraidy wrote an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News this week asking one thing: For Maine Governor Janet Mills to veto LD545, the well-meaning bill ambitiously titled ‘An Act to Ban Child Marriage.’ As she says in her article:
“In fact, the bill would ban child marriage only for those 15 and younger. Children aged 16 and 17 would still be allowed to marry with parental ‘consent,’ even though national marriage license data we’ve compiled…shows some 96 percent of the children who married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010 were age 16 or 17.”
You can read the full op-ed here, then email and/or tweet at Governor Mills (@GovJanetMills) to ask her to please veto LD545, which fails to protect Maine’s most vulnerable children from a human rights abuse.
WE DID IT! We set out in December to raise $20k by 2020. Then, after passing that goal just halfway through the month, we decided to double it to $40k. By the end of the month, we raised over $50,000 — more than double our goal. Thank you to all of you who donated to help us continue to fight forced marriage and child marriage in the U.S. through 2020 & beyond.
Learn more about our programs and what those donations are going to fund in the coming year.
Learn more about forced marriage and child marriage in the U.S. and what we’re doing to end it.
Our hard work has paid off in the U.S. Virgin Islands: The legislature voted UNANIMOUSLY yesterday to end child marriage! Bill #33-0109, championed by Sen. Javan James, now goes to the governor, who has promised to sign it into law next year.
So we have now helped to end child marriage in New Jersey, Delaware and — imminently — the U.S. Virgin Islands. American Samoa also ended child marriage last year.
Read more here about child marriage in the U.S. and our work to end it in all U.S. states and territories.
Michelle’s story*
At 16, I was forced to marry a man I’d known for two months. No one ever asked me, “Do you want to get married?”
YOU CAN SAVE LIVES LIKE MICHELLE’S. Let’s raise $20k by 2020 so we can continue to fight forced and child marriage in the U.S. through direct services and advocacy.
We provide crucial, often life-saving, legal and social services, always for free, to help individuals in the U.S. to escape forced marriages and rebuild their lives.
We also lead a national movement to end child marriage — which often is forced — in all 50 U.S. states and at the federal level. Last year we achieved two historic victories in Delaware and New Jersey. Two down, 48 to go.
Unchained At Last is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and all donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
*Name has been changed. Photo is not of Michelle. Read Michelle’s full story here.
Click here to track our progress as we push to end child marriage in every U.S. state and territory, including the gorgeous tropical islands.
