Thanks to Unchained At Last’s hard work, New Jersey today took a significant step closer to becoming the first US state to eliminate all marriage before 18.
The New Jersey assembly voted overwhelmingly to pass A3091, the bill Unchained helped to write that would end the human-rights abuse that is child marriage. The bill is still pending in the state senate.
“This is a huge win for girls and women across New Jersey,” said Fraidy Reiss, founder and executive director of Unchained, who spent much of the last several months building support for the bill. “But we can’t declare victory until the senate passes the bill and the governor signs it into law, making child marriage a problem of the past.”
New Jersey, like most US states, sets 18 as the minimum marriage age. After all, children can easily be forced into marriage or trapped in a marriage before they turn 18 and become legal adults. Also, the impacts of child marriage on a girl’s life are devastating enough that the State Department considers marriage before 18 a human-rights abuse.
However, like all states, New Jersey allows dangerous exceptions under which those under 18 can wed; state laws do not even specify an age below which a child cannot marry. Due to these exceptions, nearly 3,500 children as young as 13 were married in New Jersey between 1995 and 2012. Nearly all were girls married to adult men.
Unchained started a national conversation last year about America’s child-marriage problem, with an op-ed article published in the New York Times. Since that op-ed was published, Unchained has led the growing movement to end child marriage in every US state, by working with legislators in several states to write and pass legislation.
With today’s vote – in which seven assembly members abstained but not a single legislator voted no – New Jersey becomes the closest to passing a bill to end all child marriage. Asw. Nancy Munoz was the legislator who championed the bill in the assembly, and Sen. Nellie Pou is doing the same in the senate.
Read more here, including details about similar legislation in other states.
You get credit for this win if you joined the Chain-In in Newark that Unchained organized in July, where some 35 people, dressed in bridal gowns and veils, chained their arms and taped their mouths to protest child marriage.
You get credit if you submitted any of the more than 7,550 pre-filled emails to legislators that have been sent so far through Unchained’s email campaign. You get credit if you wrote one of the nearly 20 memos of support Unchained forwarded to the assembly judiciary committee, or if you testified with Unchained at a legislative hearing about A3091.
You get credit if you support Unchained financially. You get credit if you read and forward Unchained emails and like, share and retweet Unchained’s social media messages.
If this describes you, thank you. Well done.
Unchained At Last urges you to join the upcoming Chain-In to protest child marriage and forced marriage in New Jersey and across the US.
Be among the survivors, activists and supporters who will stand outside Newark Penn Station wearing bridal gowns and veils, with arms chained and mouths taped, to send a powerful message to legislators: Pass A3091, the bill to end child marriage in New Jersey.
Click here to read about Unchained’s past Chain-Ins.
Unchained is proud and grateful that the survivors, activists and allies who address the crowd at the the Chain-In will include:
Unchained also is proud and grateful that Girls Not Brides has granted permission for protesters at the Chain-In to sing “We Are Girls, Not Brides,” a haunting song written by girls in Zambia. Click on the image below to watch the girls in Zambia perform “We Are Girls, Not Brides.”
Child marriage – or marriage before age 18 – is a human-rights abuse that undermines girls’ health, education and economic opportunities and increases their risk of experiencing violence. Often, too, child marriage is forced marriage: Children can easily be forced into or trapped within a marriage, because they cannot easily access legal and other resources.
Yet child marriage is legal in all 50 U.S. states, and tens of thousands of children were married in the U.S. in the last decade. In New York alone, more than 3,850 children as young as 14 were married between 2000 and 2010.
And forced marriage happens to adults too, but the US has long lagged behind other countries in acknowledging and responding to this human rights abuse.
The solution? Let’s start by reserving marriage, a serious legal contract, for those who have reached the age of majority. Let’s Chain-In to grab the attention of policymakers and the public, and make sure lawmakers pass legislation to end child marriage.
Q: I don’t have a bridal gown and veil. What should I do?
A: No problem. Wear a white top, and indicate on your registration form that you want Unchained to provide you with a free veil and a “skirt” you can wear over your own clothing (and probably under your coat, assuming the weather will be cold).
Note: You are encouraged to wear a gown and veil regardless of your gender identity.
Q: I prefer not to wear bridal clothing and/or not to chain my arms or tape my mouth. May I still join the Chain-In?
A: Absolutely!
Q: Should I bring my own chains and tape?
A: No, do not bring your own chains and tape. Unchained will provide free plastic chains and tape that the Unchained team has found to be comfortable even on sensitive skin.
Q: Is this legal?
A: Yes, the Chain-In is completely legitimate. Unchained has the backing of the First Amendment, as well as approval from the New York Police Department.
Q: How much does it cost to join the Chain-In?
A: Nothing. Joining the Chain-In is free – but please consider donating to Unchained to help offset the cost of the Chain-In and to help women and girls across the US who are fleeing forced marriages.
Q: Where is the exact Chain-In location?
A: The Chain-In will be held outside Newark Penn Station, on Market Street. From inside the train station, exit toward Market Street Buses, between Track 4 and Track 5.
Q: What time does the Chain-In begin and end?
A: Please arrive at 11:30 a.m. to sign in and get into Chain-In attire. The actual Chain-In will begin at 12 p.m. and end by 1 p.m.
Q: Will the Chain-In proceed in case of bad weather?
A: The protest will proceed unless officials declare a state of emergency.
Q: How else can I help end child and forced marriage?
A: Whether or not you can join the Chain-In, please take these steps:
Some 35 attorneys attended today, as Unchained again gave its popular training course on family law, in partnership with Rutgers Institute for Professional Education. The course provided an overview of New Jersey matrimonial law, covering the major steps of the divorce process — from filing the complaint to addressing issues of equitable distribution, child custody, child support and alimony — with a focus on arranged/forced marriage and the legal and ethical issues involved.
*The course fee of $150 was waived for admitted attorneys who committed to representing an Unchained client pro bono as she flees from an arranged/forced marriage. (The course was worth 8 or more CLE credits in New Jersey and New York, and 6.5 credits in Pennsylvania.)
~ Ellen Gold, Esq. | Attorney at Law
~ Cary Cheifetz | Ceconi & Cheifetz, LLC
~ Rachel Cotrino | Law Office of Rachel S Contrino
~ Loredana Pantano | Law Office of Loredana G Pantano
~ Fraidy Reiss | Unchained At Last
Unchained thanks the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey for the generous grant that made this CLE course possible.
Meanwhile, click here to apply to join Unchained’s team of Pro Bono Attorneys, which will allow you to take the course for free.
Why should attorneys donate their time?
Attorneys who commit to representing an Unchained client pro bono receive:
~ Free access to this training course, worth significant CLE credits in NJ, NY and PA ($150 value)
~ Experience in matrimonial law
~ Mentoring from an experienced matrimonial law attorney
~ Valuable networking opportunities
~ Hours of service toward exemption from mandatory pro bono assignments
~ Unchained funds for expert witnesses and other court-related fees
~ The chance to unchain a woman or a girl from a marriage she did not choose
Attorneys with 5+ years of matrimonial law experience also can take advantage of these opportunities:
~ Mentor another attorney (counts in New Jersey as hours of service toward exemption from mandatory pro bono assignments)
~ Present a portion of an upcoming Unchained CLE course (earns double CLE credits in New Jersey)
Some 120 people joined Unchained At Last tonight at Dinner and a Movie, to watch a film about forced child marriage and discuss it over dinner and wine with local survivors of forced and child marriage.
The event raised more than $15,000, all of which will be used to help women and girls in the U.S. escape or resist forced marriages and to end coerced marriage in America.
Emcee: Michelle Charlesworth, WABC-TV anchor/reporter
Honorees: Christine Brown and Shehnaz Abdeljaber
Whether or not you were at Dinner and a Movie, check out the event photos on Unchained’s Facebook page. Here’s a preview:
Photos by Julie N. Samuels.
The New York Daily News today continued to advance the national conversation Unchained leads about forced marriage in America, with a story titled “Unchained at Last founded by ex-Orthodox Jewish bride aids women and girls escape forced marriages.”
The story describes the traumatic events that led Fraidy Reiss to found Unchained in 2011. Reiss’ family arranged her marriage when she was 19, to a man who showed himself to be violent only one week after their wedding. She was trapped in her abusive marriage for 12 years; when she finally escaped with her two daughters, her family shunned her.
Reiss managed to rebuild her life, become financially independent and even buy a small home for herself and her children. “At the closing, I realized I had finally made it,” she says in the Daily News story. “But what about the women who have not?”
For those women, Reiss founded Unchained, which remains the only organization in the US dedicated to helping women and girls escape forced marriages.
“Unchained provides one-stop shopping for girls and women in forced marriages,” the story explains. “It hooks up clients to pro bono divorce and immigration lawyers, psychotherapists, career counselors, English teachers, even driving instructors. It helps them find apartments, clothing, dishes, furniture and everything else they need to make a break.”
Read the full story here.
The New Jersey assembly judiciary committee today approved A3091, the bill Unchained wrote to end child marriage, by a vote of 5 to 1. The vote of approval came after Unchained’s executive director, Fraidy Reiss, testified before the panel and answered several questions from committee members.
Asw. Nancy Munoz, the bill’s sponsor, also testified in support of the bill, as did Nicole Morella, policy and advocacy director for the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence; Abed Awad, a matrimonial lawyer and an expert on Islamic and Jewish law; and Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women – New York City.
No one testified against the bill, a simple piece of legislation that would eliminate dangerous exceptions to the current minimum marriage age of 18 and would reserve marriage, a serious legal contract, for those who have reached the age of majority. Thus the bill would eliminate child marriage, which is a human-rights abuse. Click here to read more.
Next the bill heads to the full assembly for a vote. An identical version of the bill also was introduced last week in the senate.
Unchained At Last’s executive director, Fraidy Reiss, shared her traumatic personal story last night on PBS NewsHour, as part of two-part segment about forced marriage in the US. The segment focuses on Reiss and three other survivors of human-rights abuses that have long gone unnoticed in America: forced marriage and child marriage.
“It’s so important to raise awareness about this and to talk about this publicly, because you can’t solve a problem that nobody knows exists,” Reiss said.
Unchained not only provides direct services to help women and girls escape forced marriages but also pushes for social and legal change, through education and advocacy, to end forced marriage in America. The NewsHour piece is the latest in a series of national and international news media stories and op-ed articles through which Unchained has educated the public about forced and child marriage.
The bill Unchained wrote to end child marriage in New Jersey, A3091, is gaining momentum. As of today, the bill has 17 primary and co-sponsors, with more expected to sign on soon – a significant portion of the 80-member Assembly.
Additionally, an identical version of the bill, S2528, was introduced today in the Senate by Sen. Nellie Pou.
Unchained is grateful to Asw. Nancy Munoz, the first primary sponsor of the bill in the Assembly, and to Sen. Pou for their leadership on this important issue. Child marriage, which often is a form of forced marriage, is a human-rights abuse (read more here). If S2528/A3091 bill passes, New Jersey will become the first state in the US to eliminate this human-rights abuse.
Unchained is proud to honor two women who have worked tirelessly to help Unchained achieve its mission of helping women and girls escape arranged/forced marriages:
Christine Brown has been one of Unchained’s secret weapons for four years now.
Christine has been advising nonprofit executives for some 20 years through her firm, Christine G. Brown Consulting; she also serves as a leadership consultant for CUMAC, a New Jersey nonprofit that works to alleviate hunger. So Unchained’s executive director and board members knew exactly how lucky they were the day in 2012 that Christine offered to donate her expertise to Unchained.
Four years later, Christine continues to donate her services, attending every Unchained board meeting as a consultant. She has trained Unchained’s board and staff on issues ranging from board responsibilities to fundraising. She has helped to recruit volunteers and board members and potential partners, and she has helped to spread the word about arranged/forced marriage and Unchained’s work to end it. And she has never expected payment or accolades in return.
Shehnaz Abdeljaber was Unchained’s first board president, back in 2011, helping to lay the groundwork for the national organization into which Unchained has quickly grown.
Shehnaz’s specialty has always been working with individual Unchained clients, showing them overwhelming generosity as they flee or resist a coerced marriage – even now that she is no longer a voting member of Unchained’s board. She once opened her own home to a young woman who had nowhere else to go, providing her shelter for several months. She insisted on buying lovely furniture for a forced-marriage survivor who was transitioning from a shelter to her own home. She has donated thousands of dollars of her own directly to clients in their time of crisis, and she has hosted parties and taken to Facebook to raise even more money for them.
And Shehnaz does not just help forced-marriage survivors with financial needs. She has mentored numerous Unchained clients, giving them the emotional support and warmth they need as they rebuild their lives.
In a Pakistani village, a young mother escapes with her 10-year-old daughter – and risks both their lives – to save the daughter from a forced marriage. A deadly hunt ensues, and mother and daughter must flee through the sweeping landscape of Pakistan in their quest for freedom and safety. View the trailer here.
Questions about Dinner and a Movie? Email info@unchainedatlast.org or call (908) 481-HOPE.
The scene outside Newark Penn Station in New Jersey on July 26, 2016, was startling: Some 35 protesters stood dressed in bridal gowns and veils, with their arms chained and mouths taped, chanting and singing.
The protesters were part of the second Chain-In organized by Unchained At Last to protest forced and child marriage in the US. Their demand: that New Jersey legislators pass A3091, the bill to end child marriage, and that legislators in other states follow that lead.
“3-0-9-1! We won’t stop until it’s done!” the Chain-In protesters chanted, waving signs that read, “Stop child marriage in NJ! Pass A3091.”
Child marriage often is forced marriage, Fraidy Reiss, Unchained’s founder and executive director, told the crowd via a megaphone. Further, the effects of child marriage on a girl’s life are devastating enough that the US State Department considers it a human-rights abuse, she continued. Yet child marriage is legal in New Jersey and every other US state, Reiss declared.
“Are we OK with that?” Reiss asked the protesters.
“No!” they shouted.
After a series of fiery speeches and boisterous chants, the Chain-In culminated with protesters singing “We Are Girls, Not Brides,” a haunting song written by girls in Zambia. (Girls Not Brides granted permission for protesters to sing the song.)
Enjoy the Star-Ledger’s story about the Chain-In, as well as the WABC-TV piece and the WBGO radio story.
If you were part of the Chain-In, thank you for helping to send a powerful message about forced and child marriage.
Thank you, too, to the energetic speakers who addressed the crowd at the Chain-In, some who traveled from distant states for the protest:
Finally, thank you to the many volunteers who made the Chain-In possible, including photographer Susan Landmann and videographer Chaya Reiss.
Whether or not you joined the Chain-In, you can take these steps:
