FREE FROM BOKO HARAM, NIGERIA
Dada, 14, escaped with her child, born of a Boko Haram fighter, about one year ago. Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group, began it’s insurgency against the Nigerian government in 2009. The terrorist group drew global outrage after abducting more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok. Many of the girls were forced into marriage and motherhood. The Borno State National Emergency Agency estimates tens of thousands more women and girls have also been kidnapped by militants in less-publicized attacks. In armed conflicts, child marriage is increasingly used as a weapon of war, forcing girls to give birth give birth to the next germination of fighters. Thousands of girls remain missing in Nigeria and those who manage to escape struggle with little support to rebuild their lives. 2017.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Stephanie Sinclair has used her images to put faces to some of the world’s most serious gender and human rights issues. Her multimedia series, Too Young to Wed, which Sinclair also shepherded into a global nonprofit, addresses the deeply troubling practice of early, forced and child marriage around the world today.
