Naila Amin

Child Marriage Survivor · Human Rights Activist · Legislative Reformer · Founder, Naila Amin Foundation · Namesake, Naila's Law (New York, 2021)

USA/Pakistan

A South Asian-American survivor of child marriage and forced marriage whose personal story became the catalyst for landmark legislative change, and whose tireless activism has made her the most recognisable face of the movement to end child marriage in America.

Biography

The Story

Naila Amin is one of the most courageous and consequential human rights advocates in the United States today — a South Asian-American survivor of child marriage and forced marriage whose personal story became the catalyst for landmark legislative change, and whose tireless activism has made her the most recognisable face of the movement to end child marriage in America. Born in Pakistan and raised in New York from the age of four, she survived being forcibly engaged at eight, forcibly married at thirteen, and subjected to months of abuse in Pakistan before being rescued by the U.S. State Department. That story, which would define and devastate many lives, became for Naila the foundation of a mission: to ensure that no girl in America would ever be placed in the same position by law, by loophole, or by silence. In August 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the bill she had spent years fighting for. It is called Naila's Law.

A Childhood Between Two Worlds

Naila Amin was born in Pakistan into a Pashtun family and emigrated with her parents to the United States at the age of four, settling in Baldwin, New York on Long Island. She grew up navigating the pressures of two very different cultural frameworks simultaneously — the freedoms of suburban American girlhood and the expectations of a family rooted in traditions that governed whom she could speak to, how she could dress, and whom she would marry. She attended high school in Baldwin, a regular American teenager with friends and crushes and ambitions. But from the age of eight, she had already been promised in engagement to her first cousin Tariq in Pakistan — a fact she was aware of, though no one had asked her whether she agreed.

In March 2004, after her parents discovered she had a boyfriend, they beat her. Child Protective Services intervened and placed her in the foster care system, where she moved between group homes. Missing the stability of family life, she ran away and returned to her parents. Shortly after, during what was presented as a trip to a cousin's wedding in Pakistan, her life changed irrevocably. On 5 January 2005, at the age of thirteen, a Nikah ceremony was performed and she was married to her then twenty-one-year-old cousin. She was not present at the ceremony. She did not consent. No one asked her if she wanted to.

Pakistan: Abuse, Escape, and Rescue

What followed was approximately five months of what Naila has described, with unflinching clarity, as rape, torture, and psychological torment. Her husband beat her, confined her to the house, and took away her phone, passport, and music. Her father applied for a US spousal visa to bring her husband to America as a citizen — an application that was approved, meaning the American immigration system was actively facilitating the legalisation of her forced marriage. She tried to escape twice. Both attempts failed.

It was an uncle — sympathetic to her situation — who helped her reach her former social worker from the foster care system. That connection proved to be her lifeline. The U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Pakistan intervened in early 2005, her case making headlines in the process, and she was returned to the United States. Upon arrival at JFK, her mother was arrested for kidnapping. Naila was not considered legally married under U.S. law. She was fifteen years old. Nassau County Social Services became her primary support for the next three years, until she turned eighteen. She has credited the Commissioner of Social Services who helped save her life in 2005 as someone she continues to work with closely today.

Turning Survival into Advocacy

Naila Amin began her formal advocacy at the age of twenty-five — a moment she has described as a conscious decision to transform personal wound into public purpose. She holds a degree in human services, a field of study that directly informs her understanding of child protection systems, the failures that leave vulnerable children exposed, and the institutional reforms needed to close those gaps.

Her earliest campaign focus was the immigration loophole that had placed her at risk long before she was taken to Pakistan: the provision that allowed a spousal visa petition to be filed on behalf of a child bride, effectively legitimising forced marriages through the American immigration system. She lobbied at the federal level for changes to close this loophole, working with the National Prevention Act of Violence Against Women and the White House Gender Policy Council to include child marriage and forced marriage in national prevention frameworks. She trained law enforcement officers, frontline workers, and members of the public on recognising and responding to child and forced marriage situations.

Her state-level campaign began in New Jersey, where she played a major role in campaigning for the state to set the minimum marriage age at eighteen — which it did, becoming the second state in the US to do so. Then she turned to New York.

Two Years, 150 Emails, One Landmark Bill

In 2018, Naila visited the office of New York State Assemblyman Philip Ramos in Brentwood on Long Island and told him her story. His response was immediate: 'This story just touched my heart and it moved me to come up with legislation to outlaw child marriage.' The resulting bill began its journey through the New York legislature — but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed its progress and threatened to see it disappear entirely.

Naila refused to let that happen. She emailed every single Assembly member and every senator in New York State individually — approximately 150 people — with her personal story and a direct request to support the bill. It took her days. She partnered with Unchained at Last, an organisation dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the US, whose members began protesting outside Governor Cuomo's office weekly. She called the Governor's office daily. When Cuomo finally signed the bill in August 2021, making New York the sixth state to ban child marriage by raising the minimum marriage age to eighteen with no exceptions, Naila described the moment as almost surreal — a very happy feeling.

The law is named Naila's Law. It is the most visible legislative legacy of one individual's refusal to allow her own suffering to remain private or unaddressed. As of 2025, she continues to work with lawmakers in other states to pass equivalent legislation, and advocates for the federal Child Marriage Prevention Act that would ban marriage for anyone under eighteen across all fifty states.

The Naila Amin Foundation

At the age of twenty-six, Naila founded the Naila Amin Foundation — a non-profit organisation providing culturally sensitive services and support for women and girls fleeing forced and child marriages and honour-based violence. The Foundation was designed to address a gap she identified from her own experience: that most domestic violence shelters in the United States do not accept girls under eighteen, leaving the most vulnerable young victims with nowhere to go. The Naila Amin Foundation plans to open the first dedicated shelter in the United States specifically for minors escaping forced marriages and honour-based violence — a facility that would fill a critical institutional void in the American child protection landscape.

Beyond the shelter, the Foundation provides advocacy, referral services, and a public platform for survivors — recognising that visibility and voice are themselves forms of protection. Naila has appeared in multiple documentaries, spoken at universities including Stony Brook and Rutgers, and given keynote addresses across the United States and internationally on child rights, women's empowerment, immigration law reform, and the long-term psychological impact of child and forced marriage.

At the age of eight years old on a trip back to Pakistan, my dad gave me away. I was engaged at the age of eight years old to my first cousin... I was a passport lottery for him.

Naila Amin

Child Marriage Survivor · Human Rights Activist · Legislative Reformer · Founder, Naila Amin Foundation · Namesake, Naila's Law (New York, 2021)

Highlights

At a Glance

Survivor turned legislative reformer, inspiring nationwide action against child and forced marriage.

Instrumental in passing Naila's Law, banning child marriage without exceptions in New York.

Founder of the Naila Amin Foundation, supporting survivors of child and forced marriages.

Advocates nationally for stronger child protection laws and federal marriage reform across America.

Trains law enforcement and frontline professionals to identify and respond to forced marriages.

Collaborates with lawmakers, federal agencies, and advocacy groups to strengthen survivor protections.

International speaker advancing child rights, women's empowerment, and immigration law reform.

Leading global advocate transforming personal survival into lasting legal and social change.

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