Council on Foreign Relations’ “Women Around the World”: Sixteen and Married: Why Identity Matters for Syrian Girls
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Rebecca Hughes, research associate with CFR’s women and foreign policy program, discuss child marriage’s “devastating effects on girls’ health, education, and economic potential.” The authors specifically address child marriage among displaced Syrian families, writing, “Host countries and humanitarian organizations can reduce child marriage among Syrian refugees by identifying and addressing the barriers that prevent girls and women from obtaining official identification, and by prioritizing efforts to register them” (7/16).