Bangladesh child marriage: 15-year-old girl's heartbreaking wedding
Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. Around 29 percent of girls are married before the age of 15, and 65% of girls are already married by the time they turn 18. Families are often in a hurry to marry their daughters off, because girls are thought of as an economic burden. Education is considered unnecessary for girls, because boys get the jobs and bring the money in. Child marriage is both physically and psychologically damaging. Girls who are forcibly married at a young age are more likely to experience domestic abuse than their unmarried peers and many girls report their first sexual experience is forced. A girl of 15 is five times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in her twenties. Allison Joyce, an American photojournalist based in Bangladesh, travelled to a rural area in Manikganj District, west of the capital, and photographed a wedding between a 15-year-old girl and a 32-year-old man. Child marriage is illegal in...