With the new law that went into force on June 6, Washington is the 11th state in the country to ban child marriages. It is now against the law for anyone under 18 to get married.
The government passed House Bill 1455 this session and Gov. Jay Inslee signed it into law in March. It became law on June 6.
Before the new rule, Washington was one of only five states that didn’t have an age limit for getting married. If a judge agrees, kids of any age can get married in those other states. For teens, they only need permission from their parents.
Survivors of being married off against their will spoke out strongly in support of the bill during this year’s congressional session in Olympia.
Kate Yang from Kirkland told lawmakers that her own family sold her for $6,000 as a slave.
“I got married when I was 12 years old, and on my wedding night I was raped,” she said. “Child marriage does happen in the United States.”
Survivor Sara Tasneem told lawmakers that she was only 15 years old when she went to stay with her dad one summer and was forced to marry a guy who was 28 years old.
Tasneem said, “My dad set me up with a man one morning and told me I would marry him that night.” “This was going on without my mom knowing. After a spiritual wedding, my dad gave me to my abuser and left me in his care.”
She also said, “I was raped while I was out of the country.”
Tasneem told lawmakers that six months after she left the country, her attacker brought her back.
“That’s when we were legally married, and I was six months along,” Tasneem said. “The people who hurt me used that marriage certificate to avoid being charged with any of the crimes they were committing.”
“I finally got away from my abuser after seven long years, and it took three more years to close the divorce.”
Fraidy Reiss spoke in favor of the plan. She works for Unchained at Last, a group that wants to end all child marriage.
“These often give child rapists ways to avoid going to jail,” she said.
“About 70% to 80% of these child marriages end in divorce, leaving the young people without a home,” Reiss said. It also gives parents a reason to marry off their child to avoid having to pay child support. As if by magic, they become free when you marry off a child.
A study by Unchained at Last found that more than 5,000 children got married in Washington from 2000 to 2021. The same survey found that 83% of recent child marriages in Washington are between grown men and girls under the age of 18.
Source: The Center Square
