EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of As Equals, CNN’s ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs.
Since 17-year-old Rehana was a child, she dreamt of supporting her family. An only child to parents struggling to make ends meet in Bangladesh, she says, “I always thought, I have no brother, who will look after my parents?” She had wanted to take on that responsibility herself, but at 14, her ambitions were put on hold when a powerful family in the community proposed marriage.
“I didn’t understand how to get married…I liked to study. I studied all the time,” she tells CNN.
Rehana, whose name has been changed, instead became one of an estimated 38 million girls in the country – and 650 million girls worldwide – who were married or in a union before they turned 18. Scroll down to read her full story below.
Rehana’s experience is one of more than 250 recorded as part of a new report publishing this week, shared exclusively with CNN, providing a window into the everyday lives of girls worldwide who married or entered unions as children – some as young as 12 years old. The unions concerned are informal marriages or cohabitations, unrecognized by law but regarded as official by communities.
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