A Quarter of Pakistani Girls Are Married Before They’re 18. This Film Shows What That Feels Like

[BlueMTexpat]

Every minute, 28 child marriages take place. That’s 15 million girls a year removed from their schools, taken from their families, and denied their childhood.

The Center for Reproductive Rights reports that 24 percent of Pakistani girls are married before they’re 18 (unlike in neighboring India, Bangladesh, or Nepal, child marriage is still legal in Pakistan.) And although the legal age for girls to marry is 16, seven percent of girls in Pakistan are married at 15 or younger.

These statistics tell us the prevalence of young girls forced into marriage, but tell us nothing about what it’s like to be a child bride or the parent of a child forced into marriage. For that, we turn to stories like the film Dukhtar, and storytellers like Afia Nathaniel.

Nathaniel, once a computer scientist and now a film director, was born in Lahore, Pakistan. In her 20s, she earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science, and worked in the field for a few years before she realized she didn’t enjoy it. “I took a good look at what I wanted to do with my life, and I said, ‘I can’t be chained to a desk, writing, coding, and programming,’” Nathaniel explained. “That’s not what I want to do. I want to tell stories.”

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/a-quarter-of-pakistani-girls-are-married-before-theyre-eighteen-this-film-shows-what-that-feels-like/

My husband and I have had the very great privilege and pleasure of knowing Afia for many years. We are so happy to see that she is able to get some of her stories told, especially some about a very misunderstood part of the world.

I also find it interesting - and telling - that she was able to more easily find financing for her film in Europe than in the US.

[pansypoo53219]

1. why not call it slavery w/ 'benefits'.

[BlueMTexpat]

2. All too often there

are no 'benefits' whatsoever - at least not for the girls involved.

But slavery it is indeed.