findmeabride

Sara Tasneem was 15 years old child brides usa stories she was married off to a 28-year old stranger. Her parents were divorced, and her deeply conservative father was a member of a Muslim sect in California. I never questioned my dad, ever. Sometimes the practice coincides with religious traditions, as conservative Jews, Christians and Muslims often encourage early marriage.

But even nonreligious adolescents marry before they’re legal adults, sometimes because of a teen pregnancy. Tasneem’s case illustrates how few protections are available to young brides if their parents are the ones encouraging early marriage. She met her husband the same day as their spiritual marriage ceremony in 1996. Where am I going to sleep tonight? They just handed me over to this guy that I didn’t know. Tasneem says her father concealed the marriage from her mother by demanding she tell her mom she was going to live with her dad permanently. They made me call her and forced me to lie to her on the phone.

I didn’t feel like I had the power to stand up to all these adults. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Tasneem — who asked to be identified by her first and middle names only, in order to preserve her safety — left the country with her new husband and became pregnant almost immediately. After she turned 16, they returned to the U. In Nevada, teens as young as 16 can get married with parental consent, which can be granted in the form of a notarized statement along with a copy of the minor’s birth certificate.

I think when girls are pregnant, people tend to turn the other way — they think it’s better for them to be married. Marci Hamilton, CEO of abuse prevention advocacy group ChildUSA and professor of law and religion at the University of Pennsylvania. Tasneem eventually managed to divorce her husband in the early 2000s and gained custody of her two children, but not without significant obstacles that she says were exacerbated by her youth at the time of her marriage — she hasn’t finished her education and had no savings, job or support. You have no rights as a 15 year old. Child marriage is a serious problem in the U. Tasneem recently testified on behalf of a California bill that would prohibit minors from marrying under any circumstance, but the bill was later adjusted to keep the loopholes but increase judicial scrutiny.