Several years ago in Pakistan in 2002, I taught fourth grade at a school in an Afghan camp. The school was supported by a German organization called GTZ. For several years before that I ran a project in Khyber...

I was sixteen years old. In my mind I could hear: “Tonight commotion is in my mind, tonight light is in my heart”—the song by Iranian singer Shakila who I loved listening to. Every evening, the nightingales in the...

There is always news about Afghanistan on the Yahoo site and recently when I checked the site, a light blue title caught my attention. The news was about a six-year-old Afghan girl who was going to have to marry...

This post originally appeared at Nirmukta on FtB. Nirmukta is an organization dedicated to promoting Science, Freethought and Secular Humanism in India. “When are you going to start saving? Don’t forget there’s a girl growing up in the house..”,...

Evidence shows that the consequences of early marriages are significantly harmful. Not only does it affect the girls personally, physically and psychologically, as well as any children they might have, but it also has a heavy impact on the...

Youth today is the voice of this nation; they are the face of tomorrow. The exposure they have to the entire world and the kind of mindset they adorn makes then the bright future of India tomorrow. Youth today...

This is the second part of Early Marriage: Selling the Daughters. If graves and cemeteries could talk, they would tell the stories of those girls who killed themselves in protest against forced marriages. But the dead rest under the...

When I think of early marriage—forced marriage—I become mad and helpless. I have no tolerance for it. I want to shout out loud, so that all creatures of God could hear me. Early marriages are harmful to girls because...

Child marriage has devastating consequences on the child, on the family and in a long run, on the society. It is a dangerous practice which people undertake in the name of religion and culture. Poverty and illiteracy are one...

In Ancient India, the marriages of girls took place in their teens mostly. In matrilineal societies women had the freedom of choice .Our sacred texts mention the weddings of royal princesses such as Draupadi and Kunti, where the eligible...