A child named
Kawthar Bashar al-Husayjawi was
only 15 years old when her male relatives killed her and celebrated her murder. This was all because she
refused to be a child bride for a second time. Similarly to her first husband, her family tried to make her marry a dangerous man - this time her cousin, who was a known criminal. And it follows a much larger trend of children being forced to marry, or else face terrible consequences.
Sign the petition to demand that nations around the world ban child marriage, now.*Warning: extremely disturbing details follow.*Two years earlier, Kawthar's family had already forced her to marry an alcoholic man and removed her from school. He was violent, abusive, and a rapist, and so she ran away, much to her family's disapproval. Once the child finally obtained a divorce, her family tried to marry her off a second time - this time to a drug-dealing cousin who was recently released from prison. The girl refused and fled again, until eventually the men in her family found her. They put her in a car, drove her away, and shot her small body 10 times. Then they pulled out an axe, and split her head in two.
Afterwards, police in their region of Iraq agreed not to intervene, in exchange for a bribe. The family continued to move the dead child's body from shallow grave to shallow grave to avoid detection.
Child marriage had been illegal in Iraq since the 1950s, though the ban was not always fully enforced. But then, in 2025, things took a disturbing turn. Adult men began protesting to have the right to marry little girls, and to marry off their daughters to other men. Their protesting was ultimately successful, as the Iraqi Parliament
passed a new law allowing 9 year old children to be married off.Child marriage is a problem around the entire world. In fact,
in 75% of countries in the world, girls (children) can still be forced to marry. This also includes in the US.
Between the years 2000 and 2021,
around 315,000 children were married off in the US; 86% of those were little girls (some as young as 10 years old), mostly married off to adult men. In fact, only 17 states in the US have outright banned child marriage, meaning that it's still legal in 33 states. Three states - California, Mississippi, and New Mexico, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands - have no minimum age for marriage at all, meaning the legal age for marriage is technically 0 years old. Once married off,
children often cannot file for a divorce. Generally, only adults are allowed to change or reverse this type of legal document - but children are still allowed to be pushed to enter into such a legal contract.
Child marriage is legalized child rape. It locks children - often small girls - into situations they cannot understand, cannot consent to, cannot fight back against, and cannot escape.
It is abuse. Research shows that child marriage is associated with high rates of sexual, physical, emotional, and financial abuse. It blocks them from access to education and isolates them from others who could provide help and a pathway out.
Children deserve to know, without a doubt, that they will be safe, protected, and cared for - not to be married off and locked into a life of horror. No country in the world should allow child marriage. Sign the petition to demand that nations around the globe, including the US, Iraq, and every other government, ban child marriage now!