More than 14 million girls worldwide are subjugated by family members, poverty or a societal norm to marry long before they are adults. Human Rights Watch reports that one in seven girls is married in the developing world — mainly, South Asia and Central and West Africa — before reaching her 15th birthday.

These areas view girls as their most valuable possessions, financial assets equivalent to other family properties. Many marry off their daughters in exchange for a dowry.

“Over 50 percent of girls are married before the age of 18 in rural areas,” HRW researcher Belkis Wille said in a video. “One even sees girls getting married at the age of eight.”

Because of their prepubescent age, detrimental and sometimes fatal health complications are a common consequence of child marriage, stemming from alarmingly common human rights violations including domestic abuse, marital rape and restrictions on education.

“There is a perception that somehow marriage protects girls. But that is not the case; it simply means that child brides fall off our radar and that the sexual, emotional, and physical burdens they face are ignored,” according to Lakshmi Sundaram, global coordinator of Girls Not Brides. “It’s not easy to talk about girls being child wives and all that marriage entails for them, but we can’t shy away from an issue when it has such an impact on the health of so many girls and women.”

Read the article “The Disturbing Truth About Forced Child Weddings Around the World” on takepart.com.