Published: 2017 May 29 14:28:03 (22743 Views)

An American woman was forced to marry her rapist when she was just 11 years old, because she had become pregnant by a 20-year-old man.

Sherry Johnson is from Florida, where there is still no minimum age to marry.

Sherry told the New York Times that a number of other young girls her age at her conservative Pentecostal church were made to marry much older men – which she says was usually to hide abuse by church elders.

She said she herself was raped by both a minister and a parishioner, and gave birth to her first daughter when she was just 10 years old.



Marrying her rapist was one way for the community to end the investigation into the abuse. Even the judge approved the marriage in order to end the police probe, telling the young girl in court, 'What we want is for you to get married'.

Now, as an adult woman, Sherry is calling for an end to child marriage in the US – which is still far too common.

The US has strongly denounced child marriage in other countries – with one State Department document calling it a 'human rights abuse that contributes to economic hardship'.

However, it has yet to make strides in tackling child marriage closer to home.




Source - Metro

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