By Meaghan Whalen | Director of Individual Giving
Thank you for your generosity to Tahirih Justice Center. I wanted to share a quick update! As you know, child marriage is a significant problem in the United States that overwhelmingly affects underage girls who are married to adult men, often with dire consequences for their life outcomes, including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, poverty, lower educational attainment, and compromised mental and physical health.
Every year, the Forced Marriage Initiative tracks and engages in state level legislation across the country to address forced and child marriage. State legislative sessions started in January, and we are already seeing bills on the issue introduced nationwide!
Some bills seek to end child marriage, while others only attempt to limit it. One New Hampshire bill takes the unprecedented step of trying to roll back the reform that ended child marriage there just last year.
Tahirih engages on all child marriage legislation to support good bills, amend weak ones, and oppose those that make child marriage easier and more likely. Your support ensures we are able to continue this state level advocacy.
We recently celebrated our bill banning child marriage in DC, which was signed by Mayor Bowser and has now been transmitted to Congress for a 30-day review period. If Congress does not overrule the legislation, it will become law by the end of March.
We also provide lots of training and technical assistance to partner organizations to strengthen their understanding of child and forced marriage to deepen our referral networks and extend the safety net for at-risk girls.
Tahirih also hosted a two-part training series on Forced Marriage and each webinar was attended by hundreds of attendees.
Your support has made our work to end child marriage possible. I’m so proud of the incredible progress that has been made since our first campaign to change marriage laws in Virginia in 2016, but there is still work to be done. Girls everywhere are only as safe as the weakest law allows. Thank you for continuing to support Tahirih Justice Center as we work to ensure all immigrant survivors have support on their journey to justice.
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