On Saturday, this little girl will walk down the aisle. At the altar she will meet her 37-year-old husband-to-be. Your eyes aren't betraying you - this bride doesn't just look young for her age: Thea is Norway's first ever child bride. And she's just 12-years-old.
Since beginning blogging about her upcoming nuptuals, Thea's story has gone viral, her wedding journal becoming Norway's most read blog over the course of one day. It's sparked reactions in thousands of people all over the country, who are outraged and desperately trying to stop the ceremony from going ahead. Many have called social services, others the police - which is exactly the reaction the wedding was arranged to provoke.
The 'wedding' is set to take place on Saturday October 11 - which just happens to be the UN's International Day of the Girl. The wedding has been constructed by children's rights charity Plan in order to encourage people to take action to stop it before it can go ahead, to ignite a debate on child marriage and alert the masses to a practice that is as damaging as it is common.
Thea and her 37-year-old 'husband-to-be'
Because Thea might be Norway's 'first child bride', but she's just one of millions of girls worldwide who are robbed of their childhood and forced to marry men sometimes three or four times their age around the world. It's thought that 39,000 girls under the age of 18 - that's one every two seconds - are forced to marry every single day. It denies these girls the right to education, to their health and freedom.
“We believe that provocation is a powerful tool in order to demonstrate a reality that truly is very provoking. We hope people will mobilize against child marriage by being girl sponsors, so that most of the 39,000 girls facing Thea’s situation every day can escape their brutal fate,” the wedding blog reads.
Mabel van Oranje, Board Chair of Girls Not Brides, told Norwegian NGOs recently, “Our goal is to end child marriage in one generation. If we can keep this generation of girls out of marriage before age 18, we can be pretty sure that they will make sure that their daughters do not marry young either,” she said.
Readers of the blog are encouraged to 'digitally attend' the wedding by adding their voice to the website, and use social media to raise awareness of the issue of child marriage. Get involved and add your voice now...