Breaking the Cycle of Child Marriages: Zarif Sahin at TEDxRockCreekPark

At what age is a girl physically and mentally old enough to be married?

Every year, millions of girls under the age of 18 become child brides and are deprived of their rights to an education, safety and health.

Zarif Sahin, who was married off at the age of 14, voices the complications she endured as a child bride and the challenges she had to overcome in order to obtain freedom for herself and her daughters. Her personal experience, and the recently re-authorized Violence against Women's Act, moved Zarif to share her story in hopes to inspire people to get informed, get involved, and prevent child marriages worldwide.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)