People assume this just happens in Muslim countries, but forced marriage happens in the US too, in many places, because patriarchy. Daniele Selby suffered a lot but became an activist to prevent this happening to other girls. "I survived being raped at age 8 by the church bishop and then by my mom’s husband. When I was 9, I was raped again, this time by the deacon of the church. I got pregnant. mom dresses for wedding

"At 10, I laid in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where my mother had sent me and I gave birth to my daughter — alone. Giving birth is a hard thing to do as an adult, so imagine being just 10 years old. I didn’t even understand the process of what was happening with my own body. It was devastating.

"And then when authorities started investigating the situation, I was forced to marry my rapist to cover up my own rape. The age of marriage in Florida is 18, but if you’re pregnant or have a child, you can be married at any age to a man of any age. So, instead of handcuffing him for what he did, they handcuffed me by putting me, an 11-year-old, in a wedding dress.

"I had six children with him before I finally got a divorce at age 17. And each time I got pregnant, I was taken out of school, starting with being kicked out of school when I was 10 and pregnant. That really sums up my childhood."

https://www.globalcitizen.org/…/child-marriage-bride-surv…/…