Tahara was forced to marry when she was just 14. She’s determined to help her daughter Mahiya stay in school and pursue her dreams:
“I want to become a doctor,” says Mahiya. “I want to serve poor people.”
But Mahiya is in danger. In her community in Bangladesh, at just 11-years-old, Mahiya is old enough to be married.
Her mother Tahara is desperate to make sure Mahiya doesn’t suffer the pain she lived through.
Tahara says, “Before marriage, I used to study and do all the things a child my age would do. But that stopped when I got married.”
“When I found out I was getting married, I was devastated and very stressed,” says Tahara. “I thought, ‘How will I manage? What will I have to do?’
“I was so afraid about leaving my home and my life behind.”
She found married life very hard: “I had a lot of responsibilities: my husband was sick and I had children to care for.
“I faced a lot of problems, including mental health issues.”
It’s heartbreaking. A child, forced to leave school and go live with a stranger and his family. Forced to do things no child should ever have to do. Forced to give birth while still only a child herself.
Yet it’s not only this profound physical and emotional suffering that leaves lifelong scars on a girl’s life.
Child brides are often so overwhelmed they’re unable to cope with the household demands of their in-laws. So they’re sent back home, without having completed school.
Tahara explains what this means for their lives:
“Because they’re not educated, they aren’t able to get any job. There is no progress in their life. If a girl can’t finish her school, if she is married as a child, her future is destroyed.”
Why do loving parents allow their girls to marry so young? Tahara explains:
“My family was pressured by people in the community, especially my relatives. They told my parents ‘This is the custom: you should get your daughter married as soon as possible.’”
This means parents fear that if their daughter is not married as a child, the whole family faces exclusion and disrespect.
Tahara shares:
“If my parents had said no to me getting married, people in the community would have spread misinformation and rumors about us. They would have said I am talking to some men. It would be a very bad mark on our reputation.”
“But I don’t want my daughter to get married at the age of 14. I don’t want any other girl to be forced to marry at 14.
“My fear is that one day a marriage will be arranged for my daughter before we can stop it.”
“I don’t want history to be repeated and my daughter to go through the same thing I did. I don’t want her to suffer the same way. I want her to study and fulfill all of her dreams.”
Will you help protect girls like Mahiya and stand with moms like Tahara as they fight for their daughters’ futures?
Your generous support today will empower girls, educate parents, and help a whole community break the harmful cycle of child marriage:
- You’ll help run community workshops to change harmful beliefs about child marriage.
- You’ll support girls to stay in school and reach for their dreams, safe from child marriage.
- You’ll help equip local leaders to speak up for girls and end child marriage in their communities.
And instead of futures filled with pain and shame, you’ll help girls build futures filled with opportunities.
Mahiya knows that if she and her friends can stay in school, “No one can stop girls like us.”
Thank you for putting your love into action right now to protect girls like Mahiya and help moms like Tahara end child marriage, for good.