Iranian former child bride speaks out on Islamic community's 'extremely common' inhumane practice

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I'm ready to sell my daughters. I'm poor and in debt.

[00:00:07]>> I come home with parched lips, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying, "Baba, give us some bread. It breaks my heart, but it's the only way to feed my other children."

[00:00:19]>> Yeah, I I don't care. Declare bankruptcy. I don't know what it's like in Afghanistan. Okay, that's the BBC there. They're like the CNN of the United Kingdom trying to normalize selling young girls into sex slavery to pay the bills. That's what you just heard. Here's the headline. Selling children to survive. Afghan fathers forced to make impossible choices.

[00:00:38]They're not forced to do anything.

[00:00:40]They're doing this on their own accord.

[00:00:42]But according to the BBC, these men are the victims. fathers in Afghanistan and throughout the Muslim world who say they will sell their five, six, seven, eight year old little girls to grown men to be raped. It's so warped Twitter had to issue a community note under the story saying quote the BBC farmers Afghan fathers selling daughters as sympathetic is not. These fathers are not the victims. And what they are doing is just another example of the differences between us and them, between our culture and theirs. And not all cultures are the same or equal. Annie Cyrus is a former Muslim and a former child bride. She was 13 years old when this happened to her.

[00:01:23]She was able to escape Iran when she was a teenager. She is also the founder of Live Up to Freedom. Annie, it's nice to have you on tonight. Can you tell us what happened to you?

[00:01:33]>> Absolutely. Thanks for having me. And I agree this is not by force. He has another choice. The choice is, well, if he throw himself in front of a bus, the blood money for him is worth three times of what they would buy his daughter for.

[00:01:46]However, I was 13 years old when my father decided to sell me to a man, not because he was broke, because I was too much of a trouble and I was bringing too much shame to his status in Islamic community. So he handed me over to a man in return received $50 American dollars and I bought a month of usage of his personal opium.

[00:02:10]>> $50. How far did this did this go? Were you forced to marry this guy?

[00:02:15]>> Yes. I was his wife for over a year and a half before I could escape.

[00:02:22]>> How did you escape?

[00:02:23]My grandmother hired the smugglers to literally snatch me and smuggle me through the border to Turkey where I went to United Nation, represented my case, proved my case and got asylum.

[00:02:36]From there, I chose America as my final destination, waited three years, and came to America legally, not by jumping over the border.

[00:02:45]>> Annie, don't say anything you're not comfortable saying, but I just think, look, I think it's important to point out what's happening in the Muslim world right now. Um, what what was life like as a 13-year-old child bride to some adult male?

[00:02:58]>> Uh, confusing, enraging, very painful physically and emotionally, extremely painful and um and and and and shattering. I made it to America as an absolute shattered soul when I made it here.

[00:03:16]>> Wow. Um, let me play you one more example from that. this BBC story which which the left again this is what the left does. They try to normalize the insane. Take a look.

[00:03:28]>> 5-year-old Shika needed surgery for appendicitis.

[00:03:33]Her father say Ahmed had no money and so he agreed to sell his daughter for $200,000 just over $3,000.

[00:03:42]>> If I had money I would have never taken this decision. But then I got scared.

[00:03:47]What if she died without the surgery?

[00:03:50]I mean, that girl's five years old. What What happens to these girls once they're sold off or married off?

[00:03:57]>> Uh, well, many of them that we don't see BBC report on, they actually end up dead from physical injuries while >> they're they become sex slaves. Is that accurate? They become sex slaves and they're raped repeatedly.

[00:04:12]>> Absolutely. Yes. They become sexless slaves. They have to perform all the duties of a wife. Now, I should insert until you're 9 years old, the husband is not allowed to consummate the marriage.

[00:04:24]That doesn't stop him from being your husband other ways.

[00:04:28]>> Yeah. Um, >> but when you're nine, well, you're his wife in all shapes and forms.

[00:04:33]>> How common is this practice in Muslim countries?

[00:04:36]>> Very common, extremely common. And it doesn't matter how modernized or reformed it is, it is within their law.

[00:04:44]It is allowed and based on the latest report about over 47% of girls in Islamic countries end up being a child bride of either 9 to 15 or 15 to 18 years.

[00:05:00]>> Did you say 47%?

[00:05:02]>> 47. Yes. Across all.

[00:05:06]>> Just quickly, do you have any relationship with your father now? If he's even still with us.

[00:05:11]>> He is dead and no. The last conversation I had with my father when I made it to America was when I called him to say, "You tried. You tried hard. I'm still alive and I will make it."

[00:05:20]>> Annie Cyrus, we're glad you made it.

[00:05:22]We're going to have you back. Appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you.

[00:05:25]>> Absolutely.

[00:05:27]>> Information.

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