Sunday Assembly Detroit is a secular congregation that meets to hear great talks, sing songs and generally celebrate the wonder of life. It’s a service for anyone who wants to live better, help often, and wonder more. ***Guest Speaker*** We don't have clergy, instead, we have local community leaders and thinkers. For this month we are bringing in Fraidy Reiss to talk about Forced & Child Marriage in the U.S. Yes, forced marriage and child marriage still happen in the U.S., primarily impacting women and girls, with devastating consequences. Let's discuss how and why these human rights abuses persist and what we can do about them. About The Speaker: Fraidy was 19 when her family arranged for her to marry a man who turned out to be violent. But with no education or job, in an insular religious community where only men have the right to grant a divorce, she felt trapped. Still trapped at age 27, Fraidy defied her husband and community to become the first person in her family to go to college. She graduated from Rutgers University at age 32 as valedictorian (called “commencement speaker” at Rutgers). Her family declared her dead, but Fraidy persevered: With her journalism degree, she was hired as a reporter for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey, eventually getting promoted to the paper’s elite investigative reporting team. She went on to a career as an investigator at Kroll, the world’s largest investigations firm. At the same time, Fraidy managed to get divorced, win full custody of her two daughters, and get a final restraining order against her ex-husband. But Fraidy knows that most women and girls who want to flee or resist an arranged/forced marriage are limited by finances, religious law, and social customs. For them, Fraidy founded and now leads...

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