2019 Winners & Shortlists

Synopsis.

Across all religious sects in Lebanon, girls as young as 9 are permitted to legally wed under Lebanese law. Child marriage, a result of poverty and illiteracy, has young girls sold to the best contender like livestock. Currently, 3 in every 100 of girls aged between 10 – 18 are married. KAFA originally contacted the agency with the intention of raising awareness on the existence of the child Marriage law in Lebanon, but the agency proposed a new objective that would render the results KAFA sought: raise local awareness by creating international pressure. The objective was to raise awareness to the existing child marriage law that is usually left unseen and unspoken of, thus keeping the majority of the population ignorant to the law. Our strategy aimed at bringing to life the religious laws in Lebanon that allow young girls to legally wed. We wanted to highlight the existence of such a religious law and put it in full-action live at the Corniche, Lebanon’s most active public location visited by people from all walks of life. A photo shoot was staged there between a middle-aged man and a young girl no more than 11 years of age, his bride. The photoshoot was filmed along with countless reactions of outraged bystanders protesting against the act. Bringing this religious law to life made all witnesses feel the heat in its reality, as all daughters could be victims of such outdated rules. audience was primarily the Lebanese public, including public figures, influencers, people at large: anyone and everyone who could put pressure on the religious authorities. Our second target was to reach a regional and international level in order to maximize awareness, as well as increase the pressure on local authorities. A picture, showing the old groom and the young bride, taken during the experiment was posted live on social media and triggered a conversation while people went on sharing it and expressing their outrage. The film was later posted on KAFA’s Facebook and YouTube accounts. The campaign gained immense local, regional, and international exposure, reaching the four ends of the globe: - >40 Countries Reached: More than 100 publications and TV channels covered the story, among which are The Huffington Post, The Independent, The Daily Mail, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, France 2, CNN - >300 million organic impressions worldwide - >216 Earned Clippings worldwide - 95% of the Lebanese Facebook population reached - >36 million organic views spread across different accounts and platforms - Famous USA prankster was inspired by our campaign and replicated it in Times Square. - The United Nation Population Fund (whose mission is to deliver a world where young children and women are protected and get the right rights and education) reached out to KAFA in order to use our video as their own anti-child marriage campaign for 2016. Legally Bride paved the way for a first of its kind law proposal to set marriageable age at 18, that has been submitted to parliament and is currently under study.