Mothers and daughters in conversation about child marriage at Human Rights Watch film festival

The trauma that child brides go through can last a lifetime. Forced to become wives and mothers before they are physically or mentally ready, it is not uncommon for them to experience serious psychological trauma.

In a new film called “Child Mother”, women in their eighties and nineties tell their daughters about stories they have never told before – that of their lives as child brides.

Born into Jewish communities in Yemen and Morocco where child marriage was a culturally sanctioned custom, these women were married as young as 12 years old and forced to drop out of school to work or bear children. They have kept stories of violence and neglect from their children their entire lives.They have now decided to speak out.

Through powerful testimonies that touch on child birth, sexual violence, or depression, “Child Mother” exposes an aspect of child marriage that is rarely discussed: the impact on the family as a whole, an open wound passed on to the next generation.

“Child Mother” is showing at the Human Rights Watch film festival on 11-12 March in London. Book your tickets!