Too Young

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE SINCLAIR

HAJJAH, Yemen.

The men looming over these Yemeni girls are not their fathers. 

For her internationally acclaimed project Too Young to Wed, American photographer Stephanie Sinclair spent years exploring societies around the world that invoke family “honor” or cultural tradition to force girls into marriage. 

This image of young Yemeni villagers Ghada, Tahani, and their husbands, part of a June 2011 National Geographic article, has been featured in United Nations anti-child-marriage campaigns. 

The UN and the United States now define protection from coerced early marriage as a basic human right.

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