The U.S. took a significant step yesterday toward acknowledging and responding to a human rights violation that many people think happens only overseas: forced marriage.
Key federal agencies met at the White House with a group of advocates – including Unchained At Last – to discuss developing a national action plan to stop forced marriage. Many thousands of people in the U.S., from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, are in or are facing forced marriages, and current laws and resources are inadequate to help them.
“On behalf of women and girls across the U.S. who are affected by forced marriage,” Fraidy Reiss, Unchained’s executive director and a forced-marriage survivor, told the group after sharing her story, “I want to thank each one of you in the room today for recognizing our pain and for taking steps to help us.”
The White House meeting was organized by Tahirih Justice Center, which protects immigrant women and girls in the U.S. from gender-based violence. Tahirih pointed out that 12 other countries are ahead of the U.S. in responding to forced marriage, and it urged the federal agencies represented at the meeting to develop and adopt a plan within one year that includes these priorities:
The White House Council on Women and Girls participated in the meeting, along with the National Security Council, Domestic Policy Council and Department of State.
Want to help end forced marriage?
You, too, can join the effort to help end forced marriage in the U.S.
Register now to join a historic Chain-In on April 14 in Union Square (New York City). Survivors, activists and others will stand in chains, with duct tape across their mouths, to show the world what life looks like for the many thousands of girls and women in forced marriages in the U.S.
For other ways to help end forced marriage, visit unchainedatlast.org.
About Unchained
Unchained is the only nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated to helping women and girls leave or avoid arranged/forced marriages. In three years, with an almost all-volunteer staff, Unchained has helped or is helping more than 90 women and girls, and Unchained wrote a bill that was passed into law in New Jersey in 2014.
