Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


US Advocates Push to Eliminate Child Marriage, State by State

Carolyn Presutti

   SEA BRIGHT, NEW JERSEY -- Brides posing for photos on a beach is
   nothing new. But a group of brides, dressed in traditional white gowns,
   posed recently on a New Jersey beach while wearing chains on their
   wrists and speaking from megaphones.

   The group, [1]Unchained AtLast, was celebrating the passage of laws in
   Delaware and New Jersey that prohibitedchild marriage.

   Unchained at Last is on a quest to stop underage and forced marriage in
   all 50 U.S. states. Its founder, Fraidy Reiss, a petite woman with a
   fiery streak, was 19 when herparents -- whomshe describedas
   "ultra-Orthodox Jews,"-- forced her into a violent marriage where she
   had no reproductive or financial rights.

   "I was required to have sex with my husband and was not allowed to use
   birth control," saidReiss. "I had my first child 11 months after my
   wedding."

   Reiss saidshe was not allowed to have her own cash,credit card,bank
   account or job, "and, under Orthodox Jewish law, if my husband would
   have allowed me to work, any money I earned would go to him."

   For eightyears, Reiss secretly saved enough money ($40,000) to file for
   a divorce. She stashed it in the only place in her house where her
   husband would not look -- "a box of Total [cereal]in the pantry
   closet," Reiss said. "He didn't like Total."

References

   1. http://www.unchainedatlast.org/

.