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Bangladeshi girl receives ‘Women of Courage’ award for resisting child marriage

Sharmin Akter, the Bangladeshi girl who successfully resisted her family’s efforts to marry her off at the age of 15, will be honoured with the International Woman of Courage (IOWC) Award by US First Lady Melania Trump.

“The women were true heroes and extraordinary examples of finding the courage needed to help change the world,” Melania Trump told the programme.

According to local media reports, Sharmin of Rajapur in Jhalakathi had been married off against her will in 2015 when she was a student of class IX. She later filed a case against her husband and her mother.

The US State Department said Sharmin had “demonstrated exceptional courage and self-possession” and “dared to break the silence expected of women and girls and advocated for her rights”.

The International Woman of Courage Award, first presented in 2007, recognizes the exceptional courage and leadership of woman around the world who advocate peace, justice, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, often at great risk to themselves.

A total of 13 women will receive the 2017 International Woman of Courage Award. Among the list are environmental activists, women and children’s rights advocates, peace activists and anti-domestic violence campaigners from across the globe.

Sharmin, now 17, is under the care of her grandmother and attends Rajapur Pilot Girls High School. One day she hopes to become a lawyer and fight practices of early and forced marriage.

https://www.facebook.com/bangladesh.usembassy/videos/10154774025299807/

Source: Dhaka Tribune

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