History of Unchained

Unchained has made extraordinary achievements in its short history, under the leadership of founder/executive director Fraidy Reiss. Here are some highlights:

2024

~ After more than seven years of Unchained’s advocacy, New Hampshire becomes the 13th state to end child marriage.

~ Unchained partners with Alyssa Milano, the actress and activist who helped launch the #MeToo movement, to end child marriage in California — starting with a joint op-ed in The Mercury News blasting child marriage supporters.

~ The national movement Unchained started to end child marriage in every U.S. state continues to grow as Virginia becomes the 12th U.S. state to end all marriage before age 18, without exceptions.

~ Washington becomes the 11th U.S. state where Unchained’s relentless advocacy helped to end child marriage.

2023

~ For the first time ever, Unchained ends child marriage in three states in one year as Michigan becomes the 10th U.S. state to end child marriage. The Unchained team celebrates alongside Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as she ceremonially signs the legislation Unchained and its allies spent six years promoting. Twenty percent of the U.S. has now ended child marriage.

~ Connecticut becomes the ninth U.S. state to end child marriage after more than six years of Unchained’s relentless advocacy. The Unchained team stands alongside acting Gov. Susan Bysiewicz as she signs the ban into law and celebrates with legislative champions and advocates from the Connecticut Coalition to End Child Marriage.

~ Unchained’s six years of tireless advocacy pay off when Vermont becomes the eighth U.S. state to end child marriage.

~ In conjunction with healthcare ad agency Area 23, Unchained releases “Unseen Housewives,” its outrageous, provocative “trailer” for a show that must not go on: child marriage in the U.S. Unchained premieres the “trailer” at its parallel event to the 67th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

2022

~ Fraidy is featured in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s Apple TV+ docuseries, Gutsy, as one of the “world’s boldest and bravest women” who have made an impact in their community and on the world. Fraidy makes her appearance in the Gutsy Women Are Rebel Hearts episode of Gutsy, which examines her escape from an abusive forced marriage and her relentless advocacy to end forced and child marriage in the United States.

~ Massachusetts becomes the seventh U.S. state to end child marriage — and the first to do so via the state budget — after more than six years of Unchained’s relentless advocacy.

2021

~ Unchained hosts a Chain-In in Boston to urge Massachusetts legislators to pass H1709/S937 — as they have been pushing them to do since 2017! — and finally eliminate the dangerous legal loopholes that allow marriage before age 18. All Chain-Ins are special, but this Chain-In was extra special: It was filmed for an upcoming documentary series on a major platform.

~ Unchained’s relentless advocacy for nearly six years pays off when New York becomes the sixth U.S. state to end child marriage, ahead of Unchained’s planned first-ever “perpetual” Chain-In.

~ Unchained celebrates its 10th anniversary by talking with Chelsea Clinton, bipartisan federal and state legislators — including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin — and advocates about the grave implications of child marriage for girls, women and society and about the simple solution that is available. More than 320 people attend the virtual discussion.

~ Rhode Island becomes the fifth U.S. state to end child marriage — and third to do so unanimously — after months of Unchained’s tireless advocacy. The Unchained team stands beside Gov. Daniel McKee as he signs the bill into law, the first in-person event for the Unchained team in almost two years.

~ Unchained releases a groundbreaking new study that shows nearly 300,000 children, a few as young as 10, were legally married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018. The study also shows some 60,000 marriages since 2000 occurred at an age or spousal age difference that should have constituted a sex crime.

~ More than 150 people join Unchained’s (virtual) parallel event to the United Nations’ (virtual) 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, where they watch the award-winning documentary Knots about forced and child marriage in the U.S., and Mabel van Oranje of Girls Not Brides moderates a discussion with the film’s producer and stars (including Unchained’s Fraidy Reiss).

2020

~ Unchained’s relentless advocacy (sometimes in negative-degree temperatures!) continues to pay off when Minnesota becomes the fourth U.S. state to end child marriage and the second state legislature to do so unanimously during a global pandemic.

~ Pennsylvania becomes the third U.S. state to end child marriage and the first state legislature to do so unanimously after more than three years of Unchained’s tireless advocacy. It is also the first state legislature to end child marriage remotely, during a global pandemic.

~ Fraidy is featured in Knots: A Forced Marriage Story, a feature-length documentary film from filmmaker Kate Ryan Brewer that follows three forced marriage survivors in the U.S.

~ Gov. Albert Bryan signs Sen. Javan James’ bill that Unchained relentlessly promoted to end all marriage before 18 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, making the Virgin Islands the second U.S. territory and fourth overall U.S. state or territory to end child marriage.

2019

~ Unchained’s hard work pays off when the U.S. Virgin Islands legislature votes unanimously in favor of ending all child marriage. The bill that the Unchained team tirelessly advocated for heads to the governor, who has promised to sign it into law in early 2020.

~ Woman, from filmmakers Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand, makes its U.S. debut in New York City. The sweeping documentary is based on interviews with some 2,000 women around the globe, including Fraidy. In a world where women are forced to marry, deprived of an education, forbidden from going outside on their own and subjected to myriad other abuses, the film is a message of love and hope.

~ Unchained is featured on Lush’s Charity Pot lids. Charity Pot is a gorgeous body lotion that does a lot of good — and not just for your skin. Lush donates 100% of all Charity Pot sales to grassroots organizations including Unchained that fight for human rights and other important causes. Plus, some particularly awesome organizations get to be featured on the Charity Pot lids.

~ Fraidy is featured in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s The Book of Gutsy Women (Simon & Schuster), in which they share the stories of the “gutsy women” who have inspired them — women with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions and get the job done.

~ Fraidy is honored with the New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Award. Recipients achieve measurable community impact and represent outstanding acts of public service, without the expectation of recognition or compensations and demonstrate unique vision, dedication and tenacity of heroic proportion and serve as inspiration for others.

~ Fraidy wins the top honor — a $50,000 prize for Unchained At Last — from Ramapo College’s Russ Berrie Making a Difference Awards. The award honors individuals who have made a significant difference to the well-being of society.

~ Unchained hosts a United Nations parallel event in New York City at the United Nations’ 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, drawing such a large crowd (more than 150 people) that the “standing room” is filled to capacity and wannabe attendees are turned away. Mabel van Oranje of Girls Not Brides moderates the discussion of the progress and pitfalls in ending child marriage in the U.S. and globally.

~ Fraidy and Chelsea Clinton co-author a Refinery29 op-ed for International Women’s Day calling out legislators and some feminists for their refusal to end child marriage in the U.S.

2018

~ Celebrity stylist Ilaria Urbinati and luxury jacket brand The Mighty Company introduce a jacket collection to support Unchained’s work to end forced and child marriage in the U.S. Riverdale star Lili Reinhart is the face of the collection, modeling the jackets for Elle Magazine. One hundred percent of the profits go to Unchained.

~ Great Big Story features Fraidy as the fifth “defender” in a five-part series about fearless, headstrong, undeterred women fighting for change in the spirit of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

~ The New Jersey legislature passes the bill Unchained wrote and relentlessly promoted for three years to end child marriage, and Gov. Phil Murphy signs the bill into law, making New Jersey the second U.S. state to end child marriage.

~ The Unchained team gets tattoos to commemorate the passage of the bill to end child marriage in Delaware, the first U.S. state to do so.

~ Unchained’s hard work pays off when Delaware becomes the first U.S. state to end all child marriage, without exceptions. This, after the Unchained team spent the last three years working tirelessly — and seeing legislators in state after state reject or water down legislation to end child marriage.

~ Chelsea Clinton joins Unchained for an intimate dinner to discuss child marriage in the U.S. Clinton commends Fraidy’s “ferocity of purpose” in pushing for change.

~ Unchained stages the first Chain-In Flash Mob: Some 30 brides with chained wrists break into dance at Rutgers University to protest child marriage in America.

~ Some 175 guests attend Unchained’s United Nations parallel event about ending child marriage in the U.S. and globally. The event, which coincided with the first day of the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the U.N., was Unchained’s first since the organization recently was granted special consultative status with the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

~ Fraidy gives a powerful TEDx Talk at TEDxFoggyBottom2018. She explains how her own traumatic experience inspired her to found Unchained to help other women and girls in the U.S. to escape forced marriages.

2017

~ Fraidy is invited to speak at the global Trust Conference in London about forced and child marriage in America, as part of a discussion on why progress on women’s rights has stagnated worldwide.

~ Unchained’s work with the law firm White & Case to end child marriage in the U.S. wins the 2017 Impact Award. The prestigious international award, which the Thomson Reuters Foundation presents each year in London, recognizes projects that demonstrate significant impact for an NGO or social enterprise, its community and beyond.

~ Unchained is granted special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), giving the organization access not only to ECOSOC but also to its many subsidiary bodies, the various human-rights mechanisms of the United Nations and special events organized by the president of the General Assembly.

~ The movement Unchained started and continues to lead, to end child marriage, explodes into a national movement. The bill Unchained helped to write in New Jersey is approved by the legislature (but vetoed by the governor), and bills to end or reduce child marriage — most of which Unchained helped to write — also are introduced in California, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

~ Washington Post publishes Fraidy’s op-ed article about child marriage on the front page of the Sunday Outlook section. The article reveals the result of Unchained’s groundbreaking research on the extent of child marriage in the U.S. The op-ed is among the five most-read articles on the Post website.

~ Fraidy is featured in January on BBC’s The Conversation, talking about forced marriage. She and the organization are featured in countless radio, TV, print and online news pieces in the U.S. and around the world about Unchained’s work to end child marriage in the U.S.; the pieces include one on Public Radio International’s The World.

~ Unchained receives enough funding to promote the part-time Social Worker to a full-time Director of Client Services and to create a Communications and Policy Associate position.

2016

~ Fraidy is featured in the New York Daily News, on PBS NewsHour and Al Jazeera America, and by many other television, radio and print news outlets.

~ The bill Unchained helped to write to end child marriage advances in New Jersey, passing in the assembly with not a single “no” vote – thanks to Unchained’s tireless advocacy. (The bills in New York and Maryland do not get enough support, and they die.)

~ Some 35 attorneys attend Unchained’s annual CLE course on family law, presented in partnership with Rutgers Institute for Professional Education. The course is free for attorneys who commit to representing an Unchained client pro bono.

~ More than 10,000 emails are sent as part of Unchained’s email campaign to legislators and governors, urging them to end child marriage.

~ Unchained hosts a Chain-In in Newark. Some 35 people wear bridal gowns and veils, chain their arms and tape their mouths to protest forced and child marriage.

~ Unchained hires its second staffer, a part-time Social Worker, and moves into a professional office (and out of the executive director’s home).

~ Fraidy is invited to speak about child marriage at a United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) side event.

~ Fraidy is nominated for the prestigious DVF People’s Voice Award.

2015

~ Unchained’s bill to end child marriage is introduced in the New York Assembly, thanks to Asm. Amy Paulin.

~ Unchained’s executive director writes an op-ed, published in the New York Times, about America’s child marriage problem; it sparks a national discussion about child marriage in the U.S.

~ The Pixel Project names Fraidy one of 16 female role models around the world fighting to end violence against women.

~ The South Asian Bar Association of New Jersey presents Unchained with its Public Interest Award.

~ Unchained hires its first full-time, paid staffer in August: Fraidy (who until now has been volunteering her services as executive director).

~ Unchained organizes a historic Chain-In in New York City; participants chain their arms and tape their mouths to protest forced marriage.

~ Unchained presents at a groundbreaking meeting at the White House about forced marriage.

~ The New York Times writes a glowing story about Unchained (just one example of the extensive, international media attention Unchained’s work continues to garner).

2014

~ New Jersey’s governor signs into law the bill Unchained wrote to help domestic violence survivors (S1524/A1676).

~ Unchained is featured by numerous media outlets, including various NPR shows, Al Jazeera and Sky Atlantic (in the UK).

~ Unchained introduces a day-long training course in family law, given for free to attorneys who commit to representing an Unchained client pro bono.

2013

~ The bill Unchained wrote to help domestic violence survivors in New Jersey is introduced in the state legislature, thanks to Sen. Loretta Weinberg.

~ Unchained is featured in numerous media outlets, including Huffington Post, Truthout, Trust.org, Haaretz, Jewish Daily Forward, Times of Israel, Metro New York and NBC-TV.

2012

~ Fraidy writes an op-ed, published in the Star-Ledger, about women losing custody of their children when leaving their arranged marriages in the Orthodox Jewish community.

~ The IRS approves Unchained in February as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity.

2011

~ Fraidy writes an op-ed, published in the Jewish Daily Forward, about religious divorce laws that leave women “chained.”

~ Unchained’s business plan calls for helping five women in year one and 10 women in year two. Instead, by the end of the year, Unchained is helping 30 women and girls to flee arranged/forced marriages.

~ Fraidy forms Unchained as a nonprofit entity in New Jersey.