In April 2022, Freedom United celebrated as the U.K. caved to our pressure, passing the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill, better protecting children from forced marriage.

Our lead campaigner on this initiative, Payzee Mahmod, is a survivor advocate who sat down with Metro UK to share her experience and why raising the minimum marriage age was so important.

“Every day I woke up wishing my life was different.”

Payzee grew up in a conservative Kurdish family in South London. When she was forced to marry a 30-year-old man at age 16, getting married at her age was still legal with parental consent. After meeting once briefly, her wedding day was decided upon by her parents and husband-to-be. Even though she reached out to friends and teachers, nobody intervened.

The first thing I noticed was that he was old; he had a receding hairline and he dressed like one of my uncles. I remember feeling scared about not knowing what my life was going to be like with this man.

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