Malaika

Malaika ran away from home to avoid being married off by her parents. When she was picked up by the police they told her to go back to her mum and dad, she told Amnesty International:

“I was 15 when my parents wanted me to marry an old man of 75. He is older than my father and already has three wives and daughters of my age. The day that I had to be introduced to the old man I told my parents that I did not agree with their choice and that I wanted to finish my education. They told me that I had to marry the man they had chosen and that I had no choice but to accept.”

Today in Burkina Faso women and girls are not always free to choose when they marry, and who; when they have children and how many – this has to change.

Burkina Faso has the sixth highest rate of early marriage in Africa, with 52% of girls married by the age of 18 and nearly half already mothers at that age.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/burkina-faso-elections-cannot-ignore-women-s-crisis-0?ac=featuredquote&utm_source=web&utm_medium=feature&utm_campaign=MBMR

https://www.planusa.org/docs/state-worlds-girls-2015.pdf