Nearly 30 protesters joined Unchained At Last outside the office of Assemblyman Gary Schaer in Passaic on Sunday – dressed in bridal gowns and veils, with arms chained and mouths taped – to send a powerful message to Schaer and other New Jersey lawmakers: Pass A865, the bill to end child marriage, without exceptions.
“Gary Schaer. Show you care. Let’s be just like Delaware,” the protesters chanted from the sidewalk outside Schaer’s office.
New Jersey was about to become the second U.S. state to end all child marriage, until the assembly speaker pulled A865 from the assembly agenda on May 24 at the request of Asm. Gary Schaer, who wants to weaken the bill and leave children at risk of forced child marriage. Schaer suddenly decided ending a human-rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives might somehow offend the Orthodox Jewish community. We believe Schaer was only referring to one biblical law, one that required a rapist to marry his victim and pay her father 50 shekels of silver.
Dawn Tyree was 11 when a family friend began raping her. And she was 13 when she got pregnant and her family pressured her to marry her 32-year-old rapist in Texas to avoid a criminal investigation.
This is what happens when child marriage remains legal in 49 U.S. states, despite the movement we at Unchained At Last lead to end child marriage in America, as Nicholas Kristof explains today in the New York Times.
“It’s frustrating that legislators cling to archaic marriage laws linked to so much abuse,” Kristof says.
But Kristof points to the victory we achieved last month in Delaware, which became the first U.S. state to ban child marriage, as evidence that things are about to change. As our Fraidy Reiss tells Kristof, “This is a historic moment for women and girls, where we’re finally ending this relic from a sexist past that is destroying girls’ lives.”
Read Kristof’s column here.
And read here about the national movement.
Remember the commonsense bill we at Unchained helped to write to end child marriage in New Jersey? The one that was THIS close to passing with overwhelming, bipartisan support?
Shockingly, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin pulled the bill off the assembly agenda at the last minute Thursday. He did so at the behest of Asm. Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who suddenly decided ending a human-rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives might somehow offend the Orthodox Jewish community.
Oh, hell no. LET’S TAKE ACTION! Chain-In with us next Sunday, June 3, outside Schaer’s office. We’ll wear bridal gowns and chains to show him what life looks like for a girl who’s forced to marry.
If you’re in the New Jersey area, please also email Coughlin here to urge him to pass A865 as is, without any dangerous exceptions Schaer might propose.
New Jersey does not specify any minimum age for marriage, much like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Since 1995, more than 3,600 children as young as 13 were married here, and almost all were girls wed to adult men.
Some 95 percent of the children married were age 16 or 17 – but Schaer wants to weaken A865 to remove protections from 16- and 17-year-olds. He wants the state to end a human-rights abuse, just not for 95 percent of the people impacted by it.
If his idea sounds familiar, that’s because then-Gov. Christie – America’s most hated governor – came up with similarly evil nonsense last year, when he conditionally vetoed the same bill after it passed with solid support from both sides of the aisle.
Read more here about child marriage in New Jersey and across the U.S.
Unchained At Last is the only organization dedicated to helping women and girls in the U.S. to escape forced marriages. Unchained also is the only organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in America – and it currently leads a historic national movement to eliminate child marriage in every U.S. state.
There’s something you need to know about me before I begin. I am dead.
And with that Unhained’s founder, Fraidy Reiss, launched her TEDx Talk a few weeks ago, in which she explained how her own traumatic experience escaping a forced marriage – and seeing her family shun her for it – led her to found Unchained At Last to combat forced and child marriage in the U.S.
Now, finally, you can view the official TEDx Talk video.
Unchained At Last is the only organization dedicated to helping women and girls in the U.S. to escape forced marriages. Unchained also is the only organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in America – and it currently leads a historic national movement to eliminate child marriage in every U.S. state.
Months ago, we on the Unchained advocacy team made a promise: When the first U.S. state passed the legislation we’re promoting to end all child marriage, without exceptions, each of us would get a tattoo to commemorate the victory.
Last Wednesday, Delaware became that first state. And we’re keeping our promise. Last Thursday, we scheduled our simultaneous tattoo appointments for May 25, and we paid our tattoo deposits. Gulp.
We at Unchained At Last launched and now lead a historic movement to end child marriage in America.
When we started the movement in October 2015 with an op-ed article in the New York Times, marriage before 18 was legal in all 50 U.S. states. Since then, we’ve helped to write and/or promote legislation in some two dozen states to end child marriage – but legislators in state after state have rejected or watered down the legislation. Even after our recent victory in Delaware, marriage before 18 remains legal in 49 U.S. states, and 21 states still do not specify any minimum age to marry.
Child marriage often is forced marriage, because children are nearly powerless to say no to an impending marriage, or to get divorced, before they turn 18. Further, child marriage destroys girls’ health, education, economic opportunities and quality of life.
That’s why we write op-ed articles, conduct in-depth research (including the groundbreaking research that showed an estimated quarter-million children were wed in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010), organize Chain-In protests against child marriage, travel the country to meet with legislators and testify at legislative hearings, give regular media interviews, recruit allies, coordinate email and postcard-writing campaigns, present at conferences and other venues, and, on one occasion, promised to get tattoos if we achieved victory.
Led by a forced-marriage survivor, we are the only organization dedicated to helping women and girls in the U.S. to escape forced marriages, and the only organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in America.
If you’re reading this, you are part of the movement. Thank you. We are especially grateful to:
We still have a lot of work to do to end child marriage in America. Here are more ways you can help.
Photo Credit: Hinda Schuman
A dozen protesters joined Unchained At Last in Philadelphia on Saturday – dressed in bridal gowns and veils, with arms chained and arms taped – to send a powerful message to legislators: Pass HB1038, the bill that would end child marriage in Pennsylvania.
“1-0-3-8! Save the girls in our state,” the protesters chanted at the Chain-In.
The speakers who addressed the crowd at the Chain-In included:
The marriage age in Pennsylvania is 18, but dangerous legal loopholes allow children of any age to marry.
Children age 16 or 17 can marry with parental “consent,” which is often parental “coercion,” and children under 16 can marry with judicial approval. The judicial review process does not protect children: It does not specify any criteria a judge must consider before approving the marriage of a child. Besides, a child who is forced to marry also is forced to lie to the judge about it.
As of 2014, some 3,323 children in Pennsylvania age 15 to 17 had already been married.
HB1038 would eliminate the dangerous loopholes and leave the marriage age where it is now: 18.
We at Unchained At Last lead a growing, historic movement to end child marriage in America.
Currently, marriage before 18 is legal in 49 U.S. states; in fact, laws in 21 states, including Pennsylvania, do not specify any minimum marriage age.
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.
That’s why we are pushing to end child marriage across the United States – including through Chain-Ins, a form of peaceful protest we invented, where we gather in bridal gowns and veils, with our arms chained and mouths taped, to show the world what life looks like for a girl or woman who is forced to marry.
Finally, our hard work has paid off: Delaware yesterday became the first state to end all child marriage, without exceptions.
This, after we at Unchained spent the last three years writing op-ed articles, chaining-in in bridal gowns, traveling around the country to testify at legislative hearings, arguing with naysayers, yelling on TV and radio and in print, recruiting allies, building a team — and seeing legislators in state after state reject or water down legislation to end child marriage.
More good news: This morning the bill we helped to write to end all child marriage in New Jersey, without exceptions, was released from the assembly judiciary committee and heads to the full assembly. New Jersey might soon become the second U.S. state to end child marriage.
Previously, Delaware law set the marriage age at 18 but included a dangerous loophole: Children of any age could marry if a parent petitioned the court and the court approved it.
This loophole effectively disempowered children, leaving them easily susceptible to forced marriage at the hands of their parents. Keep in mind: When a child is forced to marry, the perpetrators are almost always the parents. And a child who is forced to marry also is forced to lie to the court about it, so the judicial approval requirement did not protect children.
We are in awe of Rep. Kim Williams, a fierce advocate for women and girls, who led the charge to end child marriage in Delaware. And we are proud that we got to join her in leading that charge, talking to nearly every legislator, testifying at legislative hearings and partnering with a coalition of Delaware women’s groups, including:
We at Unchained At Last started and now lead a growing, historical movement to end child marriage in America.
Currently, marriage before 18 is legal in 49 U.S. states; in fact, laws in 21 states do not specify any minimum marriage age.
Child marriage often is 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 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. In fact, the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
Please join the movement to end child marriage in America. Here’s how.
Be part of an upcoming Chain-In, at which we gather in bridal gowns and veils, with our wrists chained and mouths taped, to show legislators what life looks like for a girl or woman who is forced to marry. We provide the bridal gowns and chains.
And be part of our upcoming night of hilarity featuring Trevor Noah.
We showed up at Rutgers University in bridal gowns, veils and chains. And we broke into dance.
All to protest child marriage in the United States.
If you missed our Chain-In Flash Mob last month, watch it here, courtesy of NowThis.
We at Unchained At Last lead a growing, historical movement to end child marriage in America.
Currently, marriage before 18 is legal in all 50 U.S. states; in fact, laws in 22 states do not specify any minimum marriage age.
Child marriage often is 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 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. In fact, the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
Please join the movement to end child marriage in America. Here’s how.
The Chain-In Flash Mob was made possible by generous support from Lush Charity Pot.
Be part of an upcoming Chain-In, at which we gather in bridal gowns and veils, with our wrists chained and mouths taped, to show legislators what life looks like for a girl or woman who is forced to marry. We provide the bridal gowns and chains.
And be part of our upcoming night of hilarity featuring Trevor Noah.
Our hard work on behalf of girls has paid off. The Delaware senate on Thursday unanimously passed the bill we are working tirelessly to pass in all 50 states: to end child marriage, without exceptions.
The bill, HB337, now heads to the governor’s desk. If he signs it — which we expect him to do — Delaware will become the first U.S. state to end child marriage.
Current Delaware law sets the marriage age at 18 but includes a dangerous loophole: Children of any age can marry if a parent petitions the court and the court approves it.
This loophole effectively disempowers children, leaving them easily susceptible to forced marriage at the hands of their parents. Keep in mind: When a child is forced to marry, the perpetrators are almost always the parents. And a child who is forced to marry also is forced to lie to the court about it, so the judicial approval requirement does not protect children.
HB337 eliminates the dangerous loophole and ends child marriage in Delaware. The champion of the bill is Rep. Kim Williams, a fierce advocate for women and girls.
We are pushing forward in other states too. Strong legislation we helped to write to end child marriage also passed last month in the New Jersey senate and is now pending in the assembly, where it has strong, bipartisan support.
Marriage before 18 is legal in all 50 U.S. states; in fact, laws in 22 states — including Delaware — do not specify any minimum marriage age. The federal government also is at fault: It does not specify any minimum age to petition for a foreign spouse or fiance or to be the beneficiary of a spousal or fiance visa.
Child marriage often is 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 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. In fact, the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
We at Unchained lead a growing national movement to end child marriage in America by passing simple, commonsense legislation in all 50 states and at the federal level. The law firm White & Case makes our work possible through extensive pro bono legal research, bill drafting and other support.
We are grateful to these other partners and allies in our work to end child marriage:
Guess who came to dinner Wednesday night …
Chelsea Clinton joined Unchained At Last, the law firm White & Case and a small group of guests for an intimate dinner and discussion of child marriage in the United States.
Chelsea and Fraidy Reiss, Unchained’s founder/executive director, talked about the growing national movement Unchained leads — in partnership with White & Case — to end this human-rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
Clinton applauded Unchained’s leadership and Reiss’ “ferocity of purpose” in pushing for change. Clinton urged guests to help pass legislation that ends all child marriage, without exceptions.
“The fact that child marriage is still legal in this country, I think should say to all of us we still have serious work to do here at home,” Clinton said, adding that child marriage in the U.S. “really undermines our credibility as an advocate on the world stage for the rights of girls and women.”
Marriage before 18 is legal in all 50 U.S. states. Laws in 22 states do not specify any minimum marriage age.
Child marriage often is 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 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. In fact, the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
We at Unchained lead a growing national movement to end child marriage in America by passing simple, commonsense legislation in all 50 states and at the federal level. White & Case makes our work possible through extensive pro bono legal research, bill drafting and and other support.
You can help end child marriage in America. Here’s how.
