Worldwide Speaking,

women haven't come very far at all, or why else would an abomination like child marriage still exist in many parts of the earth.

Where women aren't valued, are still regarded as chattel, or as burdensome to parents, such customs stubbornly remain.

Because the wedding was illegal and a secret, except to the invited guests, and because marriage rites in Rajasthan are often conducted late at night, it was well into the afternoon before the three girl brides in this dry farm settlement in the north of India began to prepare themselves for their sacred vows. They squatted side by side on the dirt, a crowd of village women holding sari cloth around them as a makeshift curtain, and poured soapy water from a metal pan over their heads. Two of the brides, the sisters Radha and Gora, were 15 and 13, old enough to understand what was happening. The third, their niece Rajani, was 5. She wore a pink T-shirt with a butterfly design on the shoulder. A grownup helped her pull it off to bathe.