him to return home, whoever might be detaining him p's, return him. i want justice for him and a proper investigation. in july this year, the killing of a retired army special forces officer by police sparked protests across the country . several police officers are now behind bars, but no one's been held to account for the disappearance of hundreds of others. and the body count continues to grow dhaka, bangladesh. so let's take you to the headlines now on al-jazeera and the football legend. diego maradona has been buried in argentina's capital at a private ceremony. his body was transported with heavy security presence, tens of thousands of people lining the route of his funeral procession to pay their respects. other headlines, u.s. president donald trump says he will leave the white house if the electoral college confirms the victory of president elect joe biden. trump says it would be

a mistake though, if biden was confirmed. and he repeated his unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud. thousands of farmers continue to march towards the indian capital, new delhi, defying orders from police protesting about against laws, which they say will affect their livelihoods and wants the government to remove the guaranteed minimum price for their progeny. more than a 1000000 cases of covert 19 have been recorded in germany. now since the pandemic began, the government's imposing stricter lockdown measures to curb the spread of the virus from december private gatherings, limited to just 5 people that will increase to 10 over christmas. drug company, astra zeneca is considering running another global trial for its coronavirus vaccine. if there are questions about its success rate, britain's health minister asked the regulators to assess the safety of the oxford university astra zeneca vaccine. and the u.k.'s chief medical advisor says he

remains confident in the trial was not so far. the radio is going to look at the whole thing. they'll see the top of the result set as the safety of all. and we've got a great regulator. and if the u.k.'s no good, no, don't make their decisions around. so i think you had one results this vaccine works and that's very exciting. and it's going to be put forward for approval regularly. just will need to not be true for vaccines. and the strain in the military has moved to dismiss more than a dozen soldiers after an inquiry found some of its special forces committed war crimes in afghanistan. best to get as uncovered evidence that soldiers had unlawfully killed 39 civilians and press you're up to date with the headlines on al-jazeera families along with the stream next

anatomy ok. you're watching the stream today we are focusing on child in the united states. i know some, he did a double take like that. it is an issue that east consisting in the united states. despite the us being a rich developed country. the desk that you are about to meet will explain why i know you're going to have a question. so if you're new to, you could jump into the comments section and you can be part of this discussion as

well as share your questions your thoughts with i guess i will say hello to the guests. the guests were introducing some of the you had done at great to have to tell everybody who you are. thank you so much and she went in as donna pollard and i am the founder of survivor's corner. that's a nonprofit that i started back in 2018. that seeks to empower and secure survivors of various forms of trauma. well bring an end to cycles of the abuse and families and clued in cases of child care. and thanks for being with us. sorry, welcome back to the stream and wind the audience who loved what he did. thank you so much for having me. and my name is eric pakistani, and i publicly advocate here at the united states to end the practice of child marriage. i was forced at, at 15 years old to marry a complete stranger and now i use my experience to advocate against this practice as very harmful practice that exists here in the u.s. and worldwide. and i max, welcome to the string,

tell everybody. oh yes, my name is matt problems on the founder and executive director of students against child marriage for the 1st year and a nonprofit united states that when we devoted to an american child marriage, good to have a guest. i'm going to start with a conscious of a controversial unicef and ask campaign that made some people really upset.

so that campaign was campaigning against child. and you could see the response online. it doesn't happen to white children. it doesn't happen in the developing or people really surprise. so i'm getting the same response back here on twitter feed for the stream. and we were talking about tell people about this program. and indeed, let me just scroll up here shocking of the freeney, tolerating child. i think visit our entire conversation. why in america,

in 2020, will there be children who have been married all this year and next year and their age economy, but they can't get. why exactly? and unfortunately the laws in the u.s. allow child marriage to happen legally. right? now in 46 states, child marriage is legal. we have needed progress since 2017, and there have been 2 states that have led the charge, pennsylvania and delaware, and followed by pennsylvania and minnesota. so those states, outback and marriage under the age of 18, but in all other $46.00 states, child marriage, it's legally allowed. and the reason is because these was, are based in old, patriarchal value that they no longer apply to our society's norms. and this is a sign that this is still continuing and 2020,

and it has to change. i want to give people an example of what that must mean. he's a documentary series called front night. and just a couple years ago, they did a comprehensive report about child marriage in the united states and elsewhere around the world. and they could wave a delaware cool, cool, can golden? he's can story. i recall specifically a young girl who was terrified, literally scared to death to go to hardly speak. i was coming into our married to get a marriage license. she was 14 years old and she was applying and her mother was coming in and deciding to get permission for her to be married. and she was there with a male who wish 27 years old. blind to be the groom, and what i watched attorney required to do was the sense of the mother was there to

sign in and get the permission. i was supposed to grant the marriage license to perform the ceremony. as ken was talking, i could see donna not being done in this, this most resonate with you. i have got a wedding picture here of you and you are 16 so in the absence of the rats. 'd terrified little girl, you also know what that's like to new share some of those thoughts with us because that's how you became an advocate because you were a survivor. thirst, a child might absolutely. i was 16 years old when i was married to a man that was just 15 year turning y. and at the time that they were in occurred, i was taken pigeon forge, tennessee, which is a very well known to or a spy. their shotgun weddings occur each year, and i remember for the 1st time, for a after having been graeme kirk,

few years by this man. i actually met him when i was 14, and i was a patient at it behavioral health facility, where he worked as a mental health technician. and he used his possessions to crave when my vulnerabilities and the fact that i was growing nat. and he perpetuated those cycles that well, we were quite hurt for them to get us the marriage license with my mother soon sent the clear to anyone look at that me. she actually asked which one is the minor without even looking out from the computer, and noticing how cold in transactional, that was. that's when i really started feeling that fear. and i realized this was going to be a very dangerous situation and that it's the walls for allowing me to again too. next, i want to show he some of the initial saws in the coming storm out. you keep coming to us. they say, i'll supply the c. k. s.

this. i'm 63 years old and have lived well as the usa and i am not familiar with sas. and then i am missing americans and most developed country, but still has to help my. you in the whole educational jedi to become an applicant . what surprised you the most? when you started looking into child now you know why did you say ok now? now i have to see if i can help stop it in america. yes, child marriage is a modern human rights abuse happening right here in america, backyard and i 1st learned about this from mary. so i thought mary, somewhat that i read in the new york times, and i learned just how problematic i learned about the countless stories and donna that are here every year being forced into beauty marriages. and i learned that this exists because people don't know it exists. tom marriage in the united states, the leader of the free world. it happens because the public isn't aware of it and

it happens because lawmakers, they don't think that their constituents are aware of this and it's not the result . they don't think anything's going to happen to them as elected officials, if they don't act on that. and what that led to has been archaic laws in the legal loopholes which have allowed those transactional type court, clerk events which haven't had gone and which already they can happen every year or nothing. stopping them by raising awareness to conversations like these where i was a funny quote and then said that i have to shed this. and i guess you already know this, but i'm going to just share this for global. but what is this is the state department in the united states and the trouble troubling issues globally?, one of them is false. marriage, u.s., department of state views forced marriage as a human rights abuse. and in the case of mine is a foolish child of peace. if you are us citizen, and the victim of a fool overseas, you can, oh no to advice about what happens if you open seas. meanwhile, at home,

there is a major issue. now, let me, let me bring in. let me bring in unicef, because unicef is working on this as our guest. and this is how unicef framed the challenge. they have with chart knowledge in the u.s. units have called child marriage, a healthful practice, and a violation of child rights, and believes that marriage under the age of 18 should be prohibited and all circumstances. yet, here in the united states, there's actually no federal law around child marriage. rather, each individual state is responsible for setting their own requirements. this is why unicef usa is a member of the national coalition and child marriage working on a site and you know, partners and order to help more people have a whole new polls are exceptions that may promote the practice at the state level. so one of the issues saw so many of the issues about which is what happens to the

survivors. and we would he have stats, we know how young people who are girls mostly who are in child marriages. they don't thrive, you website is trying to push back on not having to surviving is one of the stories that you share mission. i'm going to show some pictures of you. if you babies. this was you when you were married. and you little girl. and then your baby, so basically a baby having babies. what was the impact on you being married? that young? yeah. well the biggest impact for me was on my education. at 15 years old i had a desire to adopt an air force and then got a last one become a lawyer. those were my dreams at arsenal. and on the day of my wedding,

when i was forced to marry a complete stranger, who had just met that very morning who was 20 years older than he took away all my freedoms. not just my education because i wasn't allowed to go back to school or at after that point, i gave up ownership over my upper body. i gave up everything. it was simply to be abused by another human being and that just shouldn't be allowed to happen. here in the states is going to be allowed to have been anywhere . and in fact, i really shocked at some of those comments that i had seen on the twitter feed talking about how this doesn't affect way people. well, i don't think that's the issue here. i think the real issue is that there is child abuse happening here and it's completely legal. so it's shocking to me that you know that people would say that this isn't happening to 8 people. i don't think it's a weight issue. i don't think it's a brown issue. i think it's

a worldwide human rights abuse issue. absolutely, and if i could just stand then and our gesture aired as well, because if you look at the date and state of kentucky, you know, here in kentucky we are a predominately white state. and since the year 2001002017, there were $10000.00 cases of child marriage that occurred. and there is no typical profile. it's not tied to specific religion and it's not tied to specific race. and the majority of those cases in a child and a person that once already and legally an adult, the youngest was 30, she was meant to be a 3 year old male. and the way that the walls worked in kentucky prior to us receiving the legislative change in 2018. if you were under the age of 60, you can't be married if there was a pregnancy involved,

and jad would sign off on that and we hear that we will surely a judge in their right mind, but not authorized parents with a child. but in that case, at that 13 year old girl, that was married up to the 33 year old man, she was pregnant, a 16 year old, married off to a 52 year old, who was pregnant. i mean, these are basically archaic walls that often were jet mines and legalized pedophile, and that's exactly what's happening. i think there is no typical profile where it ray ray, i would have to agree with you, donna. and not only that, but in the state of california, the age to legally consent to having sex is 18 years a lot. so the act of child marriage creates a lukewarm in our statutory rape laws here in california. and there is a reason that we have statutory rape minors from child and sexual abuse. and so why

are we, you know, protecting the abusers when we really should be protecting the children from this horrific, horrific form of abuse. and i'm sure that, you know, you know, in your studies have, have seen the statutory rape law circumvented in many states. oh, absolutely. child marriage in the united states is nothing short of a, in a way of legalizing rape its way legalizing abuse. and the way to legalizing women trafficking and that's are said it's legal in $46.00 states which is just absurd and surprising. and 20 twentieth's and some of the laughable. and i also just want to go back to what starr was mentioning before about the loss of education as a survival child there. by for me, a trial marriage, that's one of the reasons why i think we've been able to see such great momentum and bring students into this fight and to wheeling, degrading our younger generation in working to combat child marriage. and it's

because we're fighting for our own, you know, when i 1st learned about this issue, i was only 17 and the vast majority of child marriage survivors were my age. when i learned along very privileged to identify the mounted to not be slated to be a survivor of child marriage, i was mobilized, i was, i was energized to fight for my own. and that's why all of the students who i've spoken to about this, who had no idea that this was happening, just as so many of the beer is the day, were unaware of this. that's why upon learning about it, they tell you no, they went up in arms and they joined the fight with such passion and such eagerness to end this abuse. let me just bring in as a paul hasn't aged them, shimon writes what she kind of frames. what he's going on here, you've already done that beneath the families and the specific about peace being child to be had to look ahead to, you know, how can you see, what do we do about this? is he, she has the main reason child marriage happens in the u.s.

and everywhere else that it happens is gender inequality. girls are seen as not as valuable as boys or girls. sexuality is seen as something that has to be feared and controlled, including by forcing girls into marriage. and in terms of when child marriage will, end in the u.s., it's amazing that activists have gotten 4 states to change their minds. but that leaves $46.00 left to go, so there's a long fight ahead station and done and sorry, you've been doing this, taking it to the cool. it's because every state has different rules. so it's going to take 50 different legal battles, some of which have already been won through every state to say that child marriage should be illegal and you can only married. it's a minor when they get to the age of consent. for example, donna, can i give you this question? and this is from in the you should come, it's my passport,

pos. what is the handle? what about parental consent? can there be anything done and spanish meant to parents easy so that you know a lot about the top from kentucky? that's a very great question. and then you know, i will say that what we often consider, parental consent is most often current or coerce. and as in the case with my own mother, you know, my mother was very abusive growing that she herself had been a child bride married at the age of 32. my father here is older than she was and already had 2 sons, her previous relationship. and you know, this is something that i can trace all the way back to the are 18 working every generation on my journal. it had been under age marriage that occurred. and so, you know, when you grow up and then you for normalized. and then you know,

there kase see eerie that into the abuse with me because she didn't suffer trauma herself when she was young and ended up abusing me and was very eager to marry me off when i turned 16, which is how i ended up in the situation that i was in, so you know, parental consent itself has to be looked at in a different way. and i will say that i think at the end of the day, all of us have the same goal to end child marriage before the age of 18. and where as there have only been 4 states here in the united states that have actually set that high and bar at the age of 18, i will say that i'm hopeful by the progress that we have been making and other states to at least increase the minimum age and you know, the state of kentucky is an example we did in way with parental consent. and we require judicial approval raising the age to age 17 per fire engine initial crucial

. but with the status clear criteria that the judge would have to assess before authorizing the marriage, such as the curse and that the minor is marrying, could not be greater than corrie years older than them. the minor would have to be in the judge's chambers talking about how they mess of the judge would have the opportunity to identify a coercive relationship versus, you know, as a server, i mean a bill yet type situation. and again, i'm not advocating for children to marry at the age of 17, but what i am saying is that in my personal advocacy eyepatch reach the point where i can't let good be the enemy of perfect. and when i'm uncovering statistics, showing that 13 year old girls are being married off to men in their thirty's. then that says to me, i'm willing to at least make some progress and protect those young children. and do the next best thing any. and make sure that, you know,

children that maybe are marrying a 17 are also as best as they possibly can be. before we achieve that priority, goal of meat, i'm going to bring well into my conversation. and this is casey's research, and i'm going to get you to listen to cases one side, and then just come right over the back of the. he's case he's one thing that's always weight on me. as an advocate is the way in which child marriage often leads to severe isolation from friends from community. and also often results in a girl being entirely cut off from her education. survivors i worked with will share that while eventually they have been able to leave their marriages as adults . and many have achieved a great deal. they wonder often just how much farther along they might be, how much more they might have been able to achieve if they hadn't been married as children. right, and that's exactly why i think for a bright line of 18 legislation,

i just think it's so for him, because as a teen you share what they call the age of majority. you can enter into a lease agreement. for example, you can go to a shelter, you share this in rights as an adult. and fortunately, you know, by setting the bar. 7 a little bit lower than that, you're still exposing children to your arms of view and push, and that abuse has already started to occur. there's not much that you could do at that point, the person has been traumatized. you're now trapped in a relationship that you cannot afton see a way out. and that is so true for myself. along with many of the survivors that i've worked with the truck. why is so severe that you often it is years of their you know,

years of working to get back to where you possibly could have been to even be able to actually speak about her when you were younger. and so that's why it's so important to protect our children under the age of 18, from this horrific form of abuse and from not being able to leave that relationship . something we took away and we need new help. his or her show about 3 years ago. how institutional knowledge situation united states now would use and it's going in the right direction. were fewer and fewer chalk knowledge is right now because of the work that you're doing. and other advocates are doing. you know, i wish i could say that with, you know, 100 percent, you know, clearly the child marriages is lowering, but we don't know that that's true. and especially was coherent nine's heene and the lockdown happening across the world. it's unfortunately exact surveyed in

domestic violence situations, including child abuse including child marriage, and then you have here a actually and their recent report named child marriage is one of the 3 abuse against women and girls world. so unfortunately,, you know that and in the u.s., while we have 4 states that have banned child marriage, i am not sure if that has decreased the number of child marriages that are happening. i can only hope that it has, but we have seen that it has exacerbated summer and donna and max, thank you very much for talking to us about the work that you are doing to make child marriage. of course, the united states, legal cause of all of the united states who deeply shaped your help today. and i each keep coming to us as well. this conversation is going to continue on instagram . let me show you what we're doing all my computer here. child in the united states

at 2030, g.m.t. studying phone wednesday. we'll be having this conversation with and sprinkle took about child the impact of it and also taking that conversation internationally. i know a lot of you, a commenting on child might have around the world as well. but for now, thanks for watching us enoch's time.

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asea hack on al-jazeera. we know what's happening. i really generally know how to get them. they feel that others can all fires are still going on the way they tell the story isn't what can make a difference. tens of thousands of farmers marching towards the indian capital demanding the government withdraw laws they say will hurt them. santa maria, here in doha with the world news from al-jazeera. fans lined the streets of argentina to bid farewell to one of football's true legends. diego maradona laid to rest in point. as president donald trump says he will leave office if joe biden is d. .