In the border town of Chaman, in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, a wedding photograph began circulating online this month showing a 3-year-old girl dressed as a bride beside a groom in his 60s. Within days, the provincial government had ordered an investigation, and police arrested the girl’s father, Abdul Bari.
What made the case rare wasn’t the marriage itself; it was that anyone was held to account for it. Balochistan banned child marriage outright only last November, and most unions involving girls even younger than this toddler never surface publicly, let alone trigger an arrest.
On September 4, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring November 27 the International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage, an effort led by Sierra Leone and pushed for years by the advocacy group Just Rights for Children.
But what is really changing?
