{"id":1854,"date":"2012-06-14T08:35:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T12:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/?p=1854"},"modified":"2012-06-14T08:35:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T12:35:07","slug":"defy-tradition-change-the-world-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/06\/defy-tradition-change-the-world-5.html","title":{"rendered":"Defy Tradition&#8211;Change the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve spoken against child marriage on several occasions here. That&#8217;s why I am thrilled to share this story I found regarding a young Indian girl who chose to defy tradition and change the world.<\/p>\n<p>The world is watching for you to act. To change. The. World.<\/p>\n<p>What will you do today?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Her fate looked sealed when her family began organizing the nuptial celebrations. But the bride-to-be, a shy schoolgirl from a remote village in western India, wasn&#8217;t ready to say &#8220;I do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a region where patriarchy and age-old customs dictate a woman&#8217;s life from birth to death, 15-year-old Sapna Meena in April joined a small but growing number of girls who are standing up against the widespread practice of child marriage in India.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My family was in the midst of planning my wedding,&#8221; recalled Sapna, her black hair pinned in a bun and a gold stud in her nose, as she sat on a step outside her home in Badakakahera village in Rajasthan state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My grandfather had decided that while he was alive he wanted to see that I get married and settled. I was scared to say anything against it at first&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the rest <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/india-schoolgirl-defies-tradition-reject-child-083022998.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>+++<\/p>\n<p>DILLON BURROUGHS is an author, activist, and co-founder of Activist Faith. Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include <a href=\"http:\/\/search.barnesandnoble.com\/Undefending-Christianity\/Dillon-Burroughs\/e\/9780736937023\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Undefending Christianity<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/search.barnesandnoble.com\/Not-in-My-Town\/Dillon-Burroughs\/e\/9781596693012\/?itm=3\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Not in My Town<\/em><\/a> (with Charles J. Powell), and <em>Thirst No More<\/em> (October). Discover more at <a href=\"http:\/\/activistfaith.org\/\">ActivistFaith.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve spoken against child marriage on several occasions here. That&#8217;s why I am thrilled to share this story I found regarding a young Indian girl who chose to defy tradition and change the world. The world is watching for you to act. To change. The. World. What will you do today? Her fate looked sealed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-christianity","category-church-in-action"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defy Tradition-Change the World - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/06\/defy-tradition-change-the-world-5.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defy Tradition-Change the World - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve spoken against child marriage on several occasions here. 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