Sara Tasneem said she was 15 years old when she was forced into a “spiritual marriage” with a 28-year-old man she had only met hours earlier. When she was 16 and pregnant, she was taken to Reno, where the marriage was solemnized in Nevada.

It took her years enduring abuse, struggling to collect child support and fighting her ex-husband before she finally got a divorce.

“I basically had to give up everything in my life so that I could leave him,” said Tasneem, whose children are now 18 and 21. “I’m happy they’re in my life, but I’m not happy that child marriage is happening here in the U.S., and it’s up to you all to change it.”

Women forced into wedlock as teens urge lawmakers to ban marriage for people under 18 – The Nevada Independent