How common is child marriage around the world?
Child marriage is illegal in most places in the world, yet it is still common in many cultures. This report from the GeoBeats news series looks at how widespread it is.
Play video: How common is child marriage around the world?The video loads from YouTube when you play it. This video may no longer be available on YouTube.
An astounding 100 million girls under the age of 18 will be married off during the next ten years.
Child marriage is considered a human rights violation. Its effects on young girls include poverty, early pregnancy and childbirth, early death, illiteracy, and physical abuse and violence.
In one case, a girl in Afghanistan was forced to marry a 40-year-old man when she was just 11. Most of these marriages take place in the middle of the night, in secret, and the girls do not even know what is happening.
In 2008, a 10-year-old girl from Yemen fought to be freed from a husband three times her age. In a rare and brave case, she found her way to a courthouse and convinced a judge to grant her a divorce from the man who had physically and sexually abused her for months.