"Gayle Tzemach Lemmon on reporting forced."
"How I came to report on forced marriage — in the U.S."
"The beginning of my journey reporting this story began with a casual conversation with a friend at a food court in New York in 2012.
“I know you are writing about child marriage in Afghanistan and India and lots of other places,“ she said. “What about what’s happening here in New York?”
At first, I thought she was joking. She was not. In a conversation I have thought about countless times since, she began to tell me about her friend, a New York City public school teacher, who was watching some of his best students leave his classroom against their will. His students came to him, looking for help, and saying they had no choice — their parents insisted they get married, even though they wanted to stay to finish high school and go on to college. And there was absolutely nothing this teacher could do about it.
I began writing notes on a receipt and then a white, printed handout from another event. How was this happening in the U.S. and nobody I knew had a clue? And if what my friend said checked out, that meant this practice was happening right here in New York, just a handful of miles from where I sat at that moment..." Read entire article and watch video @: PBS.org
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"A right cannot be violated except by physical force.
One man cannot deprive another of his life, nor enslave him,
nor forbid him to pursue his happiness, except by using force against him.
Whenever a man is made to act without his own free, personal, individual, voluntary consent
— his right has been violated."
-Ayn Rand
