A recently published article about forced marriage in The Washington Post perpetuated harmful stereotypes and excluded the experiences of many communities.

In partnership with Tahirih’s Forced Marriage Initiative, Mayer Brown LLP and Caterpillar Inc. completed an extensive pro bono research project in 2014 about conditions for individuals from the United States facing forced marriage overseas.

Tahirih Justice Center, an advocacy group for immigrant women, reported that about 3,000 cases of forced marriage took place in the United States from 2009 through 2011.

We presented our Change.org petition at a meeting with the White House Council on Women and Girls on March 18, marking a pivotal step in the growing movement to recognize forced marriage as a domestic problem and develop a comprehensive plan to protect individuals from this hidden human rights abuse in the United States.

We are thrilled to introduce the first and only U.S.-based website of its kind, www.preventforcedmarriage.org.

Preventforcedmarriage.org is recognized as a groundbreaking, one-stop resource for individuals facing and fleeing forced marriage.

The data is clear: Child marriage problem is a problem right here in the U.S.