EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is a part of As Equals, NCS’s ongoing collection on gender inequality. For details about how the collection is funded and extra, try our FAQs.
Since 17-year-old Rehana was a toddler, she dreamt of supporting her household. An solely little one to folks struggling to make ends meet in Bangladesh, she says, “I always thought, I have no brother, who will look after my parents?” She had needed to take on that duty herself, however at 14, her ambitions have been put on maintain when a robust household in the group proposed marriage.
“I didn’t understand how to get married…I liked to study. I studied all the time,” she tells NCS.
Rehana, whose title has been modified, as a substitute turned one in every of an estimated 38 million girls in the nation – and 650 million girls worldwide – who have been married or in a union earlier than they turned 18. Scroll all the way down to learn her full story beneath.
Rehana’s expertise is one in every of greater than 250 recorded as a part of a brand new report publishing this week, shared solely with NCS, offering a window into the on a regular basis lives of girls worldwide who married or entered unions as youngsters – some as younger as 12 years outdated. The unions involved are casual marriages or cohabitations, unrecognized by regulation however regarded as official by communities.
The 2025 State of the World’s Girls report by world NGO Plan International reveals how these relationships depart girls weak for the remainder of their lives. It checked out 15 international locations with excessive little one marriage charges throughout Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and located that in all, advocates imagine such marriages and unions are going largely unchecked by authorities, regardless of there usually being legal guidelines in place, whereas the wants of younger brides are going unheard.
The researchers interviewed greater than 250 girls who had married or entered a union earlier than the age of 18 – now aged between 15 and 24 – as effectively as greater than 240 little one marriage activists. They discovered {that a} important quantity are beneath the management of older spouses, face intimate accomplice violence and usually are not in training or employed. Many turned moms at a younger age and have minimal company in their lives, together with in their sexual and reproductive selections.
The accounts additionally shed mild on the diverse drivers of kid marriage, which can not all the time be compelled by dad and mom or communities however as a substitute by social and financial circumstances or lack of other choices. And amongst these surveyed, multiple in 4 girls had sought a divorce, left their marriage or had their marriages finish – however later discovered themselves unprepared for this new and unsure future.
“Girls are entering child marriage for many different reasons, and then they are choosing where possible to leave it. This underlines what we have been saying for many years, that child marriage doesn’t offer a better path for girls,” says Zoe Birchall, world lead of campaigns and mobilisation at Plan International. But “girls can face stigma and abuse because of leaving a marriage from their communities,” she says.
NCS spoke with three girls in Bangladesh, Zambia and Ecuador – married or in unions by the ages of 14, 16 and 15 respectively – who shared the realities of the atmosphere they grew up in and why they noticed marriage as a approach to enhance their future.
Names have been modified and illustrations are nameless to make sure their security.
Married at 14, divorced at 15. She says she confronted day by day intimidation and abuse.
“When I got married, I was very scared. I was only 14 years old,” says Rehana, now 17, who lives in an city slum in Bangladesh. Here, marriage this younger is frequent, she says, regardless of little one marriage legal guidelines in place since 1929. The younger bride remembers having to sleep in a brand new home with a brand new household quickly after the marriage ceremony, having all the time slept along with her mom at house till then. “My mother is like a best friend to me,” Rehana says.
Rehana explains that ladies and girls face common harassment on the streets the place she lives and a method households imagine they’ll defend their daughters is to marry them younger. But conversely, she tells NCS, many younger girls run away and get married themselves. Research reveals that is usually as a consequence of the concern of kid marriage, with some girls selecting to elope with boyfriends of their personal age relatively be compelled to marry an older man. Rehana’s mom, Farida, says that to stop this, dad and mom like herself really feel pressured to marry their daughters even youthful.
As a toddler, Rehana loved learning and hoped to sometime go into enterprise, which her dad and mom inspired, till they acquired a proposal from an influential household in the group. They needed her to marry their 17-year-old son. The union was alternative for Rehana’s household, whose sole revenue got here from their father, a rickshaw driver. They struggled to make ends meet, says Farida, however by no means compromised their daughter’s training.
The rich household appeared to supply good prospects and, importantly, the potential in-laws promised Rehana’s dad and mom their daughter can be taken care of and have her training funded. They additionally assured them she wouldn’t need to dwell with their son till she turned 18. The future mother-in-law agreed to all situations, says Rehana: “Whatever we said, she said yes.”
A Muslim marriage ceremony befell inside three weeks and the household say they altered paperwork to extend their daughters age and register the marriage ceremony legally. An area Plan professional confirmed that is commonplace.
Recalling the day, each Rehana and her mom change into emotional. Rehana explains that she didn’t wish to get married however would do something her dad and mom wanted. Farida, additionally with tears in her eyes, describes how stunning her daughter appeared, how individuals remarked, “she’s so pretty. She’s like a doll.”
But quickly after the union, Rehana says the guarantees have been damaged and the psychological abuse and harassment started.
Rehana says the household saved her at their house for lengthy durations and barred her from attending faculty, questioning why she wanted an training after they wouldn’t let her work anyway. Soon in addition they stopped her from seeing pals, pressured her to put on a burqa and intimidated her into complying with their expectations, utilizing their connections to watch her conduct and journeys whereas out.
“It was very tough for me,” Rehana says. Her husband additionally abused her bodily and mentally, leaving her feeling trapped, she recounts.
Her mom says she realized inside a couple of months that she had made the flawed resolution for her daughter, however the thought of a divorce terrified her as a consequence of the stigma Rehana would face.
But as the one-year anniversary of the marriage approached, Farida determined sufficient was sufficient. She didn’t wish to depart Rehana alone along with her husband’s household anymore, and divorce papers have been served. The in-laws tried intimidating Farida, she says, however she was decided to safe her daughter’s freedom. “They were very angry about it,” Farida says. They stated many false issues about Rehana and that “she’s in contact with someone else,” however Farida says at that time, “I didn’t care about anything.”
The mom and daughter didn’t depart their house for not less than per week after the divorce was finalized, they clarify, to keep away from verbal abuse as rumors about Rehana unfold inside the group.
Now nearly an grownup, Rehana has completed secondary faculty and is constant her training. She has additionally arrange a small enterprise promoting jewelry. Her mom says the divorce was a life-saving resolution.
“I have learned a lot from my daughter… I have done a lot of bad things to her,” she provides, however says she is grateful she was in the end in a position to convey her daughter house.
He gave me issues I requested for. When we lived collectively, all the things modified.
“Life was difficult,” remembers 19-year-old Diana, one in every of 4 youngsters whose dad and mom farmed maize, soybeans, and groundnut for a dwelling. She liked her household however remembers how they struggled to get by, usually consuming only one meal a day.
So, three years in the past, at the age of 16, when an older man named Jacob began paying her consideration, it was a draw. “I was excited about dating him, like when I asked him like I need something, he used to give me,” together with cash, she says.
Just a few months into the relationship, Diana turned pregnant by the then 20-year-old and determined to maneuver in with him in a close-by village – which in her group equates to marriage – telling her dad and mom she was visiting her aunt then ceasing all contact. “I was afraid that if my parents know that I’m pregnant, they will kill me,” she tells NCS.
Under Zambian regulation, marriages beneath the age of 18 are unlawful, however this omits casual unions like Diana’s, which specialists say bypass laws, making them more difficult to deal with.
Diana says her life stopped being enjoyable as soon as she moved in with Jacob. She had left all her pals behind and was too afraid of her dad and mom discovering she was pregnant if she went to high school, so she stop. Jacob additionally feared her dad and mom discovering out, Diana says. “He was afraid they would arrest him.”
The teenager additionally “started seeing things changing” in Jacob, she says, recalling that he made her do all the home tasks, drank alcohol excessively, and have become verbally and bodily abusive.
“The way we used to live when we were dating” utterly modified, Diana explains. “Everything was hard, he was not working, so life was difficult for us.”
At six months pregnant, Diana says she was fed up and determined to return house – regardless of the penalties she may face. That morning, she advised Jacob she was going to fetch water and left quietly, strolling the eight-kilometer (five-mile) journey house.
Once house, and visibly pregnant, Diana defined all the things to her dad and mom, who at first, she says “were angry with me. They shouted at me.” But after pleading with them to “forgive me for what I did,” she was relieved to be accepted.
When the younger mother gave delivery, Jacob was not in the image. With the assist of her dad and mom, she returned to high school, the place she acquired a blended welcome. “Some of my friends, they used to give me good advice,” she says, whereas others “laughed at me” and stated “bad words.”
Before she turned pregnant, Diana dreamed of changing into an engineer. Now, she says, she’ll take “any job” accessible.
“I was a child. I didn’t know anything about life.”
Growing up in a rural space of Ecuador, Jen met her accomplice Yan 5 years in the past – when she was 13 years outdated, and he was 20. She explains the sort of union is frequent and usually accepted in her group.
The now 18-year-old shares that the older man had been sort and paid her numerous consideration. “He was always giving me support and we just had open conversations,” she tells NCS, recounting how they talked for hours about their lives. “He was not aggressive, he was a kind man, and he is still like that.”
Jen would inform her pals about Yan, she says, however not her dad and mom, “They didn’t like him because he’s older than me, that’s why I only used to tell my friends.”
After two years, they determined to maneuver in collectively, which in her group is seen as a casual union equal to marriage.
In response, her dad and mom “wanted to send him to jail because I was underage,” Jen says. The age of sexual consent in Ecuador is 14 years, whereas their union wouldn’t be legally recognised as the authorized minimal age to marry or dwell collectively is eighteen.
But Jen says she assured her dad and mom she would proceed learning “because that was their main concern,” and explains that in her group there are numerous “12 or 13-year-old girls that are also living with their partners.” Although a mother or father might object initially, they have an inclination to ultimately settle for, she tells NCS.
Referring to Yan as her husband, Jen says she values their relationship however has come to acknowledge that she acted too impulsively. When she moved in with Yan, she additionally moved in along with his father and at simply 15, Jen discovered family obligations piled on her. She did all the home tasks, such as cleansing, laundry, making breakfast, “and then I went to school. And then when I arrived from school, I started cooking dinner for myself and my partner, and sometimes also for my father-in-law.”
Now she thinks they need to have stayed “boyfriend and girlfriend” and never moved in collectively. “I was a child, it was a quick decision, I didn’t know anything about life.”
At 17, she turned pregnant. It wasn’t one thing she anticipated. “I have some cysts in my ovaries, so I was told that I was not going to be able to have children,” Jen says; as a end result, the couple didn’t use contraceptives. In anticipation of parenthood, they moved in with Jen’s mom.
Jen shares how she had as soon as loved faculty actions like cheerleading and being a part of a band. Before the casual marriage she remembers largely taking part in along with her siblings and having enjoyable: “I didn’t have to worry about anything. My mother was in charge of everything.”
Now obligations at house take up most of the younger mom’s time, however she managed to complete faculty and hopes to go to school subsequent yr. “My mom is very supportive,” she says.
UNICEF figures present that yearly 12 million underage girls round the world enter marriages, together with casual unions, with a 2025 report revealing the highest ranges at the moment are in sub-Saharan Africa. Data signifies some progress in current a long time, with little one marriages falling from multiple in three ladies worldwide between the ages of 20 and 24 reporting they’d been married as youngsters to beneath one in 5 in 2021.
This progress is generally as a consequence of a big decline in South Asia, which beforehand had the highest charges. The UN company says the drop has been notably pronounced in India, attributing this partially to a targeted strategy to girls’ training, authorities spending on girls, and elevated public consciousness on the illegality and harms of kid marriage.
But a number of specialists advised NCS that the tales of Rehana, Diana and Jen, alongside the lots of of others interviewed for the State of the World’s Girls report, present that financial insecurity and restricted alternatives for adolescent girls are nonetheless key drivers of kid marriage worldwide – and that authorized protections usually are not being adequately enforced to guard their rights.
“The routes into child marriage or unions are different,” says Plan International’s Birchell. “A girl may feel that she is coming to this with some choice, but ultimately…we still see these girls are going into these child marriages because they feel they don’t have a better option.” Birchell believes the report demonstrates that there isn’t any conventional type of little one marriage. “It’s way more nuanced…we have to think, if these girls had all the options in front of them, if they were able to access education fully, if they had the money and availability to choose otherwise, would they have done that?”
The most typical causes girls in the examine say they married younger are financial hardship, cultural norms or stress from household. Among the girls interviewed, 25% say they’d no say in the resolution to marry and 35% dropped out of college proper after or as a consequence of their marriage. Among the girls who shared the age of their companions, nearly half (45%) have been married to males greater than 5 years older than them. The report famous girls in a number of international locations cited difficulties round contraception entry and company in their decision-making round this.
45% of the girls surveyed bought married to a person 5 or extra years older
More than one in 10 girls interviewed additionally disclosed abuse or violence by their accomplice; nevertheless, as they weren’t straight requested this and have been usually talking inside the house, the NGO believes this probably doesn’t replicate the true scale of the drawback. Of those that reported such violence, 85% have been married to males not less than 5 years their senior.
Zaki Wahhaj, professor of growth economics at King’s College London, highlights that the accounts of the girls interviewed by NCS reveal a failure of their international locations to safeguard these girls. “Jen, Diana, and Rehana were placed in situations involving abuse, exploitation, or serious risks to their safety and wellbeing,” he tells NCS. “All three countries have a legal minimum age for marriage, but these safeguards failed, bypassed through informal unions or the use of falsified documents. Although it is encouraging that the girls’ families ultimately supported them and helped improve their situations, family support cannot always be assumed.”
For international locations with little one marriage legal guidelines in place, studies present the challenges governments face in imposing them, as a consequence of gaps in the legal guidelines themselves, exceptions in the minimal age of marriage and group backlash. This is the case in the three international locations the place the girls NCS spoke to are primarily based, for instance the legal guidelines in Ecuador, Bangladesh and Zambia don’t straight reference casual unions. In Bangladesh, whereas the authorized age of marriage could also be 18, loopholes permit these to happen such as the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2017 permitting little one marriage with parental and judicial consent if deemed to be in the greatest curiosity of the minor. Cultural norms round the follow and the complicity of native officers additionally hinder progress, in line with the Centre for Reproductive Rights.
Government companies in Bangladesh, Ecuador and Zambia didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.
Veronica Kamanga Njikho, senior adviser for little one safety at UNICEF, emphasizes that the experiences of those girls “reflect a broader reality: child marriage increases risks of violence, economic vulnerability, school dropout, adolescent pregnancy, and poor mental health.”
This new analysis, she says, helps to establish what’s wanted to enhance their lives. “Laws alone are not enough. Without enforcement, accountability, and broader social change, child marriage persists in practice,” she explains. “We know what works: keeping girls in school, supporting families economically, enforcing laws that ban child marriage, and working with communities to change harmful social norms.”
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