The very progressive state where child marriage is LEGAL – and local ACLU chapter claims it would be ‘discriminatory’ to ban it

California is one of four states that has no minimum age for marriage.

Instead, a minor would only need permission from a parent or guardian and a judge’s approval to obtain a marriage license — a concept that has sparked some controversy.

New Mexico, Oklahoma and Mississippi are the only other states that allow people of all ages to marry with the consent of a judge and a parent, but the Golden State is the first state to object.

AB 2924, which would repeal existing legal language allowing for marriages under the age of 18, was introduced in the local legislature in February.

However, there has already been significant opposition to the proposal, including from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Northern California, ACLU California Action and the National Center for Youth Law.

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The coalition believes that such a directive would push abusive relationships out of the law and curtail the rights of minors who want to marry voluntarily. This position is shocking to survivors of child marriage, such as Sara Tasneem.

“When I was 15, my father forced me to marry a man I didn’t know at all and who was almost twice my age,” the now 43-year-old resident of El Sobrante writes on her website.

‘It took me seven years to leave this abusive marriage behind.

“I am fighting to change the laws that allow child marriage in the United States, alongside other survivors who know all too well the human rights violations that come with forced child marriage.”

In an interview with The Mercury Newsshe remembers being trapped in the archaic, arranged marriage until she was 23.

During that period she had two now adult children and at the end of the marriage she was finally able to initiate divorce proceedings.

To achieve this, she said, she had to leave her children with their father for a while, explaining how she figured out the next steps.

She was soon able to get them back and now uses her experience to rally others who have gone through or are going through similar ordeals to her side.

‘[A child marrying an adult] “It’s abuse in and of itself because one person has power over another,” she told the Bay Area newspaper on Monday.

She explained that she had previously testified about her experiences with child marriage in Sacramento in support of AB 2924 earlier this year, and what she sees as the biggest obstacle to her efforts so far.

“To me, it’s Planned Parenthood that’s standing in the way,” she said. “I just don’t get it — we really should be on the same side in this situation.”

He points out the irony that such an institution would oppose a directive that is precisely intended to protect young mothers.

Tasneem described how she is one of the advocates who has met with Planned Parenthood several times about the bill, which was introduced by Orange County Rep. Cottie Petrie-Norris.

The group, along with the local ACLU chapter and the National Center for Youth Law, refuse to give in, she said.

“It seems like they’ve held back a little bit and seen this more as a political issue than an actual issue that affects children,” she explained.

Their refusal led Petrie-Norris, a Democrat, to cancel a judiciary committee that was intended to pass AB 2924.

The bill was then withdrawn. Many people at the time blamed MP Ash Kalra, the chair of the Justice Committee, for his support for several amendments that survivors like Tasneem disagree with.

They prohibit marriage under the age of 16, among other things, but allow the court to make certain exceptions for some 16- and 17-year-olds and emancipated minors, Petrie-Norris said. These prospects shocked Tasneem and stopped Petrie-Norris.

“I have tremendous respect for the lived experiences of the survivors and advocates I worked with on this bill,” she said at the time, explaining why she decided to stall the bill because the survivors she worked with felt strongly that there should be no exceptions.

“After considering our options for this legislative session, I have decided to pause the bill rather than move forward with a compromise proposal that they do not support.”

The bill appeared to be defeated there, but Tasneem and other survivors continue to resist with protests outside Parliament.

Tasneem said new legislation could also be introduced soon, which, like Petrie-Norris’s, would abolish the ability of minors to marry and set the minimum age at 18, with no exceptions.

Only 13 states, including New York, Pennsylvania and all of New England, have adopted such provisions. All other states have a minimum marriage age of 16 or 17, with Hawaii and Kansas having a particularly low limit of 15.

The criticized bill was apparently popular in the meantime, with 20 co-sponsors from different parties and houses involved and work on it already underway in 2021, she said.

Meanwhile, the federal government has signed a United Nations pledge to end child marriage by 2030. But states have been slow to introduce bills like those in the Northeast and Washington state that would have raised the mandatory age of child marriage to 18.

A 2021 study by Unchained at Last, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending early marriage, found that it’s a significant problem. Between 2000 and 2018, some 300,000 minors were legally married in the U.S.

Many of them came from California. More than 8,000 minors in California between the ages of 15 and 17 were married in 2021 than in 2021, Unchained at Last found when reviewing the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey.

By 2022, that number had risen to more than 9,000, according to Unchained at Last. About 86 percent of these marriages involved underage girls marrying adult men.

In protest, survivors and Unchained at Last organized a “chain-in” protest outside Kalra’s San Jose office on July 18. Women wore wedding dresses with chains around their wrists, symbolizing the prisons they say these marriages create.

“I want to protect the people with the least say in this process, and that’s the minor,” Tasneem said days later. “Nobody looks after them — not their parents, not the law, not lawyers, not politicians. Nobody.”

She plans to continue similar protests at the Legislature in Sacramento, hoping that someone will eventually introduce a similar bill.