We at Unchained At Last are delighted to announce that our founder, Fraidy Reiss, has been nominated for the prestigious DVF People’s Voice Award – and you can help us win.
The DVF Awards were created in 2010 by Diane von Furstenberg and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to honor and support extraordinary women who have had the courage to fight, the power to survive and the leadership to inspire. The awards recognize women who have transformed the lives of others through their commitment, resources and visibility.
Do you agree that Fraidy fits that description? We hope you do, because the People’s Voice Award is chosen by popular vote from four nominees, with voting open to the public until March 27.
Please VOTE NOW, and get everyone you know to do the same. If we win, we will receive $50,000 to help women fleeing forced marriages, and we will be recognized at an awards ceremony on April 7 at the United Nations headquarters on the occasion of the Women in the World conference.
~ EMAIL: Forward this email to at least 10 people you know who care about ending forced marriage and child marriage. Ask them to vote too, and ask each of them to forward the email to 10 more people.
~ TWEET: Take to Twitter. Here’s a sample tweet: <<A vote for @UnchainedAtLast to win #DVFAwards is a vote to end #forcedmarriage & #childmarriage. Vote & RT now! http://on.dvf.com/O34Z0Z>>
~ POST: Get on Facebook and other social media platforms. Here’s a sample post: <<Help win $50,000 for women fleeing forced marriages – and help end #forcedmarriage and #childmarriage in the US – by voting for @UnchainedAtLast to win the @DVF People’s Voice Award! Please vote now and please share this post. http://on.dvf.com/O34Z0Z>>
~ TALK: Tell everyone you know about Unchained’s nomination for the DVF Award.
Fraidy Reiss’ family considers her dead.
When Fraidy was 19, her family arranged her marriage, per the custom in their insular religious community in Brooklyn. She discovered only a week after her wedding that her new husband was violent – and that she was trapped. Her family refused to help her; she had no way to support herself or, soon, her two daughters; and she faced religious laws that allowed only men to grant a divorce.
Fraidy was trapped for 12 years before she escaped, by earning a college degree and financial independence. Her family declared her dead, but she rebuilt her life with her two daughters and went on to found Unchained At Last, the only US nonprofit dedicated to providing free legal and social services to help women and girls escape arranged/forced marriages.
Unchained has been featured in the New York Times, written and passed important legislation, presented at the White House, and provided crucial, often life-saving services to hundreds of women and girls – many whose families have declared them dead.
Actually, they are very much alive, and part of a growing, thriving new family: Unchained At Last.
Click here to read a New York Times story about Fraidy. titled Woman Breaks Through Chains of Forced Marriage, and Helps Others Do the Same.
Click here to read an op-ed Fraidy wrote in the New York Times in October, titled America’s Child Marriage Problem. The op-ed started a national conversation about child marriage in the US and helped lead to legislation currently pending in four states to end child marriage.
