National campaign to advocate for the prevention of early and forced marriages.

A “Bride with a Doll” is the name of the campaign launched against early and forced marriage during the “16 Days of Activism against VAW” in November 2018. The campaign was held as a part of the project: “Promoting empowerment of refugees’ women in Lebanon and Jordan for the elimination of GBV and the exercise of their rights”, implemented by the Arab Women Organization (AWO) in partnership with Associació Catalana per la Pau and supported by Agència Catalana de Cooperació al Desenvolupament.

The main plot device is a doll to reflect the story through its existence in the eyes of the girl herself. There was also a play on the word “Arosa” in Arabic as it both means a doll and a bride.

After analyzing the status of early marriage in Jordan, through a joint study on “Early & child marriage”, implemented by AWO, we found out that the number of cases of early marriage has increased dramatically in the last few years amongst both Syrians and Jordanians, So it was decided to organize a March (street procession) in Mafraq city because it has the highest percentage of early marriage in Jordan.

AWO had collaborated with local activists and CBOs to mobilize and advocate for the campaign. It was a challenge because people in a conservative community are not accustomed to such an activity. The procession/march was marked as a great success though it took huge efforts to make it possible.

The march was from AWO women center to the Mafraq Municipality Building in downtown. A play about early and forced marriage was displayed in a big hall inside the Municipality. A large number of female students from the public schools attended.

Prior to the campaign launching, AWO created a data driven tool to be utilized not only during the campaign meeting but also in the awareness-raising sessions and training workshops. The tool was a storybook tailored to both target audience (mothers + daughters) that reveals both parallel sides of early marriage explaining the drive force behind parents pushing their daughters to marry early and the horrific consequences, including physical, emotional and mental damage. The narrative is an abstract based on statistics and data gathered on early marriage in Jordan.

The storybook, which can be read from both opposing directions- right to left & left to right- tells a narrative of a girl being forced to marry at 14, with each side of the book showing a different side of the story. The side to be read by the mother reveals the complex buildup of events prior to her decision to marry off her daughter, while the other side of the storybook to be read by the girl, reveals the drastic consequences of such action on her well-being and future

As the mother and daughter each read the story book from outside in throughout AWO’s reading sessions, an intimate and emotional conversation is born in silence until they together arrive to the middle of the storybook where the root of the problem is exposed

At the end of each session, the mother writes a note on a card to her daughter and the daughter does the same. This note is considered as a promise from the mother to her daughter not to marry her until she is 18, and for the daughter usually they ask their mothers not to marry them off while they are still children and want to play and go to school.

The campaign was supported by a series of designed posters, showcasing the statistics of certain cases related to the subject

The campaign was exposed to a huge traditional and social media coverage from both public and private sectors.

The campaign, including the street procession/march and the following awareness-raising sessions to mothers and daughters together was rated as a huge achievement because of the engagement and reactions of mothers and daughters in a local community.

The following link contains a video of the event: Press Here  

Bride with a Doll campaign was praised during sessions held with INGOs at the following meeting of the UN Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) in New York March, 2019, for the creative approach and impact.