MONTREAL – It isn’t every day that we feel grateful for where and how they live.
Most of the time, it takes something truly eye opening to make us realize how lucky we really are.
According to Colette Lelieure of Amnesty International, 142 millions girls will be wed before the age of 18 within the next 10 years if something isn’t done.
That’s four times the amount of children who attend school in North America and Europe combined.
Young girls being put up for marriage is rooted in deep and extreme religious traditions, and it is a practice that is apparent as ever in the Middle East.
Girls that are as young as five years old are being forced to get married to grown men.
“That’s one of the reasons they want them so young, so they’ll do what they want, and the way they want,” Lelieure told Global News. “They are treated almost as slaves.”
These girls are not just married and raised, as children, by their husbands; these girls are raped and abused daily.
They are often mistreated and forced to do tasks that are seemingly impossible to a person of that age and size.
Photographer Stephanie Sinclair traveled to the Middle East to photograph the shocking way of life.
An exhibition, showing Sinclair’s photos, is now open in Montreal at The Gesu. Admission is free.
Visit http://tooyoungtowed.org for more information
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