Who has been rapping against child marriage?

Music is a way of expression. Many people take to music, either as listeners or performers, in search of inner peace or to vent out their feelings.

Sonita Alizadeh took to rapping when she was 16, bringing out her first video ‘Daughters for Sale’, to raise her voice against child marriage. Now 22, Sonita continues to rap for the cause close to her heart.

What is she fighting for?

Child marriage is a social evil that has persisted for centuries. According to data released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as of February 2019, very year close to 12 million girls under 18 are married. Nearly 650 million girls or women alive today were married as children.

While progress has been made, with close to 25 million child marriages prevented in the last decade, there is still a long way to go.

She was almost one of them

Sonita was born in 1996 and grew up in Herat, Afghanistan, under the Taliban rule. When she was six, her family fled from Afghanistan to Iran. Here, he lived her life as an undocumented refugee and a child labourer.

Sonita worked but also educated herself. She learned to read and write at a non-governmental organisation for Afghan refugees in Iran. She took a keen interest in writing and poetry and was inspired by Iranian rapper Yas and American rapper Eminem.

When she was 10, her parents had arranged for her to be married. Sonita was deeply affected by this as her dream was to receive education. She would even see her friends being beaten for refusing child marriage. Thankfully, the arrangement fell out.

During this time, she found solace in music. She started writing pop songs but realising that she had a lot to say, decided to switch to rap.

She recorded songs about being a refugee, about the Afghanistan war, and about being a young woman. But she had to hide her lyrics in her backpack as Iran had a law prohibiting women from singing or rapping.

One day, she entered and won a U.S.-based competition to write a song for a music video encouraging young Afghans to vote. Still living in Tehran, she won $1,000 as prize money.

Daughters for Sale

Sonita thought things would get better when she won the competition. However, her mother, who had returned to Afghanistan, asked her to come home as she had found a future husband for her. Sonita was just 16.

She refused to marry at such a young age and penned down a song called ‘Daughters for Sale’. An Iranian filmmaker, Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, who had come to know about Sonita, helped her to make a video and release the same. The music video garnered several views and became an anthem against the child-bride tradition. After the video gained international recognition, Sonita won a full scholarship to a boarding school in the U.S. She even convinced her parents to abort their quest to get her married.

Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami made a documentary on Sonita’s life, and released it in 2015. The film won the World Documentary Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016.

Today, Sonita lives in the U.S. and advocates for ending child marriage that has reached curriculum on child marriage high school students in the U.S. Sonita has also spoken at several forums, including the World Bank’s Fragility Forum.

She continues to write songs and wishes to be a “lawyer who can rap”.

What makes her special?

Sonita took to music and used it to raise hr voice against child marriage. Despite the constant challenge she faced, he stood her ground and is today inching closer towards realising her dreams.

 

Picture Credit : Google