SONITA ALIZADA

Personal claim

“Every year more than 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 - that is one girl every 3 seconds. Currently, more than 650 million women suffer from the effects of child marriage. I fight to change this outcome for girls everywhere, to ensure that every girl has the opportunity to choose her own future.”

About me

I was born in Herat, Afghanistan under the reign of the Taliban regime. My family walked hundreds of miles in the rain and snow to escape. I grew up an impoverished, undocumented refugee child laborer. At the age of 10, I was sold into forced marriage. The contract fell through. My family again tried to sell me when I was sixteen, I escaped. Witnessing the injustices of the world, and my friends swiftly disappearing as they were forced to marry, I wrote the song, “Daughters for Sale”. With the aid of an Iranian filmmaker, a music video was recorded and my life was