Rakiya

Married at 12 in Nigeria

Rakiya sells bean cakes by the side of the road to pay for food and her boys’ schooling.

As a young girl, she dreamed of an education for herself. But she would never see the inside of a classroom. Instead, betrothed at 11 and married at 12, she was continuously raped within marriage. Her own father beat her into submitting to her husband. And two months before her 13th birthday, she delivered her first child.

Widowed at 20, with five children—and a sixth on the way—Rakiya sold everything she owned to feed her boys. When there was nothing left, she sold herself. Finally, she resolved to find another way. So Rakiya sells bean cakes by the side of the road.

“It is the ignorance of our people” that leads to child marriage, Rakiya says. “They believe that the girl will spoil. I never fooled around with men until I found myself in a terrible situation and I had to use what God has given me to feed my children.”