Life as a child bride

Day three of our #16Days of blog posts to raise awareness, show support and campaign against #violenceagainstwomen and we bring you a moving piece on the stark reality of life as a child bride. Child marriage is a stark reality that 15 million girls face across the world every year – that’s approximately 41,000 girls per day, 28 girls every minute or 1 girl every 2 seconds. It’s not something that happens someplace far far away, but still exists within our society. It is the individual voices who courageously share with us all this year their story, so that they can help change the social norms that enable forced marriage to continue. Do your part to help spread the message and fight to #endchildmarriage this November. #riseupbristol 

I vaguely remember my childhood. I was born in Wales and grew up in Grafton Road, Newport, South Wales. I was called Muna, the youngest of four sisters. Our father Ali was Arabic Yemeni and my mother Mary was British. What I can remember of my childhood was happy.

AS #16 DAYS BEGINS, RISE #BRISTOL, NOW IS THE TIME FOR #VAWG ACTION

Words by Bernie Ritchie

Today is an important day for the team at Bristol Woman. Today, we celebrate our first birthday at Bristol Woman as well as marking International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the start of the ’16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’ campaign. Today, we mark Day 1 of the #16Days campaign and giving thought to the burning question of continued and frequent incidences of violence against women – #VAWG – across the world. A troubling topic that we should all campaign against and think deeply about in whatever way we can.