
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone/Johannesburg, South Africa, 27 March 2018 (UNFPA)* – “According to our tradition, a girl should get married when she reaches puberty,” said Zainab Binta Jalloh, a 23-year-old from Sierra Leone’s Koinadugu District.
She would know – she was married when she was 15 years old.
Two years early, when she was only 13, a 45-year-old man approached her parents with a marriage proposal. “He was rich, and he was using his wealth to influence my parents. My parents were pressuring me about him every day,” she told UNFPA.




