This child marriage survivor is fighting to end it in the U.S.

Brut America

At 8, she was engaged. At 13, she was forced to marry. Today, she's fighting to end child marriage in the U.S. This is Naila's story ...

Transcript

00:00When I was eight, on this trip, I was engaged.

00:03How old were you there?

00:05Fifteen.

00:06Because we had to basically sleep with each other.

00:14I have a picture, and I'm just sitting there,

00:29and I look like a little girl, and I'm just smiling,

00:32but I don't know what's going on.

00:34I hear these older girls giggling,

00:46because he was my first cousin, my dad's brother's son.

00:49So he was there, and I was in their house,

00:53and they were like, you know, this is about to become her house.

00:56You know you got engaged last night?

00:58And I didn't get it. I didn't get it.

01:01I thought it was cool, because I was getting gifts and stuff.

01:04I didn't know anything.

01:05But I came back to America, started the fourth grade,

01:07and I met this boy, and I had a crush on him,

01:10but I said to myself, you know what, Naila?

01:12There's no hope, because you're already engaged.

01:15Imagine at eight years old saying that to yourself.

01:32My parents brought me back here, because up until 2017,

01:35the age to get married with parental permission

01:37was 14 in New York.

01:39Soon as I turned 14 and started college

01:42in Baldwin High School down the block,

01:45they noticed I was talking to boys

01:48and, you know, becoming westernized.

01:51They applied for my husband to come here.

01:53It was approved, and then my parents found out about a boy,

01:57and I was beaten.

01:59I spent some time in foster care.

02:01I ran away from the foster care system, came back home,

02:04and was kind of lured into the child marriage trap.

02:27I don't know how many senators there were,

02:46but I emailed every one of them.

02:48I called Governor Cuomo after he got the bill on his desk,

02:52Naila's law, after it was unanimously passed.

02:55It was sitting on his desk for about four weeks.

02:57He finally signed it.

03:10It's not just the Muslim women, not just the Jewish women.

03:14It's every woman in America.

03:16This is an American problem.

03:19We're also working on a federal bill

03:22to raise the sponsorship age for spouses to 18,

03:28because in order to sponsor a parent, you have to be 21.

03:32But to get a spouse, they go by the state.

03:35So if you are in West Virginia who has no age limit,

03:39you can be 8, and he can be 60.

03:41I'm in pieces, and I'm starting to pick them up slowly.

03:45And I have to cut my heart open for every little girl out there.

03:49And she needs to know that if I can do it, you can do it.

03:53So we have to stay strong.

Category

Transcript

Recommended