Normalized Abuse & Violence

Many survivors identified overcoming extreme forms of childhood abuse and neglect, including witnessing parental intimate partner violence and experiencing incest and sexual and physical abuse by their families and communities.

The childhood abuse and neglect histories make many forced marriage survivors victims of trauma.

A Survivor's Story

This survivor was forced into marriage at the age of 15. She describes the ongoing child abuse she suffered at the hands of her father and her stepmother. Her biological parents divorced, and her father had custody of her and her siblings.

It was difficult for the survivor to cope with the loss of her mother. Her father who soon married. He and his new wife abused the survivor and her siblings physically and emotionally.

The survivor didn't recognize this poor treatment as abuse.

What Service Providers Should Know

Many forced and child marriage survivors with childhood histories of abuse and violence felt as if they did not matter to their families and communities.

They described having to put aside their personal and emotional needs for their families and communities to feel loved and valued by their families and communities.