By Meaghan Whalen | Director of Individual Giving
In addition to the immigrant survivors supported by our legal and social services teams, 80 survivors of forced marriage received direct services in 2023 from Tahirih’s Forced Marriage Initiative. These clients spanned 23 states and the District of Columbia. We also delivered expert technical assistance to other service providers nationwide, which impacted at least 200 individuals in forced marriage situations. For individuals facing or fleeing forced marriages, we provide trauma-informed, survivor-centered, linguistically accessible confidential support. Key services we offer include risk assessments, safety planning, emotional support, comprehensive case management, relocation support, direct advocacy and liaising with applicable U.S. government agencies for individuals facing forced marriage abroad seeking to return to the U.S., free legal assistance in immigration and family law matters for those within our service areas, and referrals to our nationwide network of trained and trusted partners.
Tahirih’s pioneering work on ending forced marriage was recognized with two significant accolades this past year. Tahirih is now the co-chair of Girls Not Brides USA, a group of 60 civil society organizations working to end child marriage. We are excited to step into a leadership role in this coalition and to continue pushing for stronger laws to end child marriage everywhere. Of even greater significance, we received our first ever federal grant to support our forced marriage work, which establishes Tahirih as a national training and technical assistance provider for the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) during 2023 and 2024. In this role, we will educate service providers across the nation on how to recognize and respond to forced marriage situations. This award is a direct result of Tahirih’s years of advocacy, which led to the 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act including forced marriage as a type of harm (which Tahirih also helped write the language on for the 2022 reauthorization).
Tahirih’s Forced Marriage Initiative successfully supported the passage of state laws to limit or end child marriage in six states, including three states that ended child entirely: Vermont, Connecticut, and Michigan. Our team supported a new law in Maryland that removes the ‘marriage defense’ to sexual assault. Our team continues to advocate for changes that would eliminate transnational exploitation of girls and women through the vehicle of marriage.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
