Ibtihal and Aya speak of their dreams, fears and what it means to be girls in Gaza. UNFPA provides safe spaces for Ibtihal, Aya and thousands of other young women and men in Gaza. You can read more about Aya and Ibtihal and Gazan girls here. 

Young women and adolescent girls' ability to make free reproductive choices is contingent on many socioeconomic factors and rights. This is reflected in 2018's State of the World's Population (SWOP) which focused on the title of "The Power of Choice: reproductive rights and demographic transition."

Child marriage is a violation of human rights and a major factor preventing children from developing into healthy adults.

Although child marriage affects both boys and girls, girls are generally more exposed to it, particularly during emergencies, where families might marry girls off as a way, in their view, to protect them or to relieve themselves from the financial burden that girls represent.

In this video, two girls from Yemen give a first-hand testimony on how marriage has dramatically affected their lives and aspirations, and how they are coping and overcoming its negative effects.

We asked adolescent girls from Palestine, Jordan, Kurdistan Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Syria about their dreams and aspirations, and they answered that any girl should be able to aspire to be an architect, a pilot or even the president of her country!

UNFPA believes in the right of girls to be informed about their bodies and empowered in their ability to choose what is better for them, and encourages teenage girls to stay in school, pursue professional opportunities and delay pregnancy until they are over 18 years of age.

It is our responsibility to give proper information to adolescent girls, so they can grow into a safe and healthy womanhood.

The Syrian crisis has left hundreds of thousands of adolescent girls vulnerable to child marriage and in need of adequate gender-based violence, sexual education and reproductive health services. UNFPA is helping to fill this void in Jordan, where 42,000 Syrian refugees are girls between the ages of 12 and 17. This is Asma's story. A film by UNFPA Jordan/Elspeth Dehnert.