Zubeda Khatoon was all of 14, studying in Class VII, when her parents got her married to a man twice her age. Her education was abruptly stopped and she entered her new household with no “samajh” whatsoever. Khatoon’s girlish fantasies of living the life of a young bride were shattered in no time. She was barely 16, when she approached the Pydhonie police station, after her husband threatened her with a knife. The following year, she sought a divorce, remarrying soon after—this time with better results. 

Resident of Jari Mari on Andheri Kurla Road, Rubina Manzoor, 44, was also married at 14 years of age. By the time she turned 18, she was already a mother of two kids. When we meet her on a weekday morning, Manzoor says she was only able to understand her husband when she was 30. All the years in between were emotionally and physically draining. “The back pain and weakness that crept in during pregnancy as a young girl, still haunts me. Marrying girls at a young age is unfair. They are not ready, physically or mentally.”