Photo Journalist Captures the Marriage of a 15YO and His14YO #childbride in Gaza.

He got a phone call from a friend asking if he wanted to photograph a wedding in Gaza. He told him he wasn’t interested but when he heard that the groom was 15 years old and the bride was one year younger than him, the photographer rushed to the location immediately.

After arriving he saw people celebrating in the street not far from the border between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip. Among them was a young Palestinian boy being carried on the shoulders of relatives and friends. He couldn’t believe that the boy was the groom until he asked him and he replied with a smile, “yes I am”.

#Endchildmarriage –– The Story of a Child Bride in #Chad

My name is Geneviève Vroumdam, I am 12 years old. Three years ago, I was forced into an early marriage.

My older sister was married to a friend of our father’s, an old man who neared his 70th birthday. She was only 15. One day, she just took off. She could no longer take this loveless marriage. She ran far away from us, from our village, and married a young man of her own choosing.

When a bride leaves, however, it is tradition for the family to return her dowry. And what a large dowry it was! My dad owed them seven cows. Of course, he could not afford such a sum, at least not right away.

#Nigeria Has a Rape Culture Too

Since I heard about the gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi,India has been on my mind. The woman was on her way home from the cinema with a male friend when they were attacked on a bus. Her injures were so severe the doctors had to remove parts of her intestine to stop the infection and try to save her life. Though she battled to stay alive, she died on 28 December. This incident has provoked a series of angry protests in Delhi and across India as men and women from various backgrounds, castes and religions hit the streets to demand safer living space for women. The fact that it is the first time in the history of India when people were out on the streets on the issue of gender signals an important paradigm shift on national discourse of sex, sexuality and rights of women.

The first time I read the story, I quickly shrugged it off to shield my consciousness from imagining what the victim went through. Yet, the savagery of the act, the use of a rusty metal rod to brutalise her insides, still haunts me. A lot has been written about this incident and anything worth saying has been said. However, I'm writing this in the Nigerian context and violation for the female body in mind. What would have happened if this incident happened in, say, Lagos or Abuja? Let me tell you what would happen. Nothing.