Viral video raises awareness on child marriage [VIDEO]
After his much talked about video about child predators on social media, YouTube star Coby Persin has conducted another social experiment, this time delving into child marriage.
To see how people would react on the highly sensitive issue, Persin arranged for a fake post-wedding photo shoot for a 65-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl at the Times Square in New York, US.
Persin opened the video by explaining his rationale for the social experiment. According to him, child marriage is legal in 91 countries, plus some states in the US. Children, as young as 12 years old, are forced to marry older men and have their childhood robbed from them.
The video then shows Persin as he pretends to be a photographer, directing the supposedly newlyweds to pose for pictures. The trio immediately catches the attention of people at the Times Square, but no one seems to be involved with what’s happening.
Soon enough, however, concerned citizens approach the elderly groom and his noticeably unhappy young bride. One woman asks the girl, “Where is your mom?” The girl does not answer, so the woman turns her question to the man. The faux groom says that the girl’s parents gave him permission to marry her. The woman, incredulous to what she hears, asserts, “She’s young! What are you doing with someone her age?”
As crowd gathers around the couple, more people become brave enough to come up to intervene. One man says, “This is bulls---! This is not right! And I'm sure if we called the cops, you would get locked up!” Another one swears at the 65-year-old groom, calling him “a f---ing sick pervert.”
Some even attempt to go beyond just verbally reproaching the elderly man. One woman holds to the young girl’s arm to lead her away. A man, in another confrontation, pushes the groom up against the wall.
All this time, the young girl keeps silent, obviously looking uncomfortable in her wedding dress. Meanwhile, the elderly man posing as her groom continues to defend himself, saying that his age does not matter, and that he has the permission of her parents.
The video, which has since earned over four million views, also shows that each day, 33,000 girls are married as children. The International Center for Research on Women also paints a grim picture on this worldwide problem, reporting that one in nine girls in the developing world is married before the age of 15. The group also warns that if the present situation remains the same, over the next decade, there will be 150 million girls before they even celebrate their 18th birthday.
Source: YouTube/Coby Persin
