By Meredith BirkettMarried at the age of 8. That fact alone is hard to fathom. It's even more difficult to stomach when you think of the resulting forced intercourse, physical abuse and early pregnancies that often result. But for girls in more than 50 countries around the world and in the U.S., this is their reality. The reality of child marriage.(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/pb-121010-child-brides-01.photoblog900.jpg)Stephanie Sinclair / VIlFaiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Damarda Village, Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2005. Ghulam said she is sad to be getting engaged as she wanted to be a teacher. Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair (http://www.stephaniesinclair.com/index.php) has been documenting this issue around the world since 2003. A large body of her work was published in recent weeks in National Geographic.
We asked Sinclair to tell us more about her reporting:
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