The ugly reality of child marriage in the United States
Child marriage is legal in some circumstances in almost every state of the United States. Activist Fraidy Reiss says many Americans do not know the problem exists in their own country.
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A global issue, also in the United States
"It's a moment of unprecedented attention for child marriage around the world." Those words come from a 2016 Human Rights Watch report. It estimated that one in three girls in the developing world marries before the age of 18.
The topic has slowly moved up the global development agenda. The United Nations has set a goal of ending child marriage by 2030.
Yet many Americans remain unaware of the problem close to home, Reiss told CBS News. "We cannot solve the child marriage problem globally if we don't first solve it here in the United States," she said.
Unchained at Last
Reiss is the founder and executive director of Unchained at Last. The non-profit helps girls and women plan their escape from forced marriages and rebuild their lives afterwards.
Its main work is free legal support, including divorce cases, custody battles and restraining orders. It also helps clients find housing after their escape, goes with them to stressful appointments with lawyers and doctors, and connects them to therapists, English classes, emergency financial help and more.
What the law allows
Nearly every state bars children under 18 from marrying. But there are ways to get exemptions, for example with a judge's consent or a parent's permission, according to the Pew Research Center.
In 27 states, the law sets no minimum age below which a child cannot marry, according to Unchained at Last.
Helping children in forced marriages is difficult ground for activists and social workers. A child who leaves home under 18 is considered a runaway, so shelters and social services that help them can face legal action.
Children generally cannot start legal action in their own name. In many states, this means a child may marry but may not divorce.
A personal fight
For Reiss, the work is deeply personal. She grew up in a closed Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. At 19, she was forced into an arranged marriage that quickly became abusive. Under Orthodox Jewish law, only men can grant a divorce.
Fifteen years into the marriage, Reiss divorced her husband. She won a restraining order and full custody of their two daughters, and began a new life outside the community she grew up in. To this day, her family considers her "dead", she said.
"There's nothing easy about escaping a forced marriage," Reiss said.
The numbers
National figures on forced marriage are hard to find. In a survey of marriage licences by Unchained at Last, at least 167,000 children under 18 were married in the United States between 2000 and 2010. The real number is probably higher, because the organisation could obtain age data from only 38 states.
Most of those children were girls married to adult men, Reiss said.
Child marriage is most common in the southern states, according to the Pew Research Center. It is most common in West Virginia and Texas, followed by states such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Nevada and California.
Pressure for change
Reiss says that on child marriage laws, the United States is comparable to countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Her organisation is lobbying lawmakers across the country to limit marriage to people aged 18 and over.
In some states the movement has momentum. Bills to end or limit child marriage were pending in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, a bill to stop all marriage before 18 had passed the state Assembly and Senate and was awaiting the signature of Governor Chris Christie.
"Americans tend to think of marriage as a beautiful, happy, romantic thing," Reiss said. "It's important to know that marriage before 18 is not romantic and beautiful and happy. It is something ugly."