Advocates demand New York lawmakers outlaw child marriage
Safia Mahjebia of New York’s Brooklyn borough was 16 years old when a close friend in her tight-knit Bangladeshi community was forced into a marriage with a 25-year-old man.
“Our immediate response was unanimous fear. Fear for her safety, fear for her future and fear in the air to know you could be next,” Mahjebia, now 20, said.
Mahjebia said she felt betrayed to learn the marriage was legal in New York, and it was only her parents’ ignorance of that fact that prevented her own marriage as a young girl.