"15-year-old Omaima is the star of her community. She advocates for women's right to education and against underage marriage. ; Omaima, from Dara'a, fled Syria with her family after her close uncle was killed and felt it was no longer safe for them to stay in Syria.   When Omaima first arrived at Jordan's Za'atari camp in 2012, the 11-year-old refugee from Syria was not aware of the issue of early marriage. Then some of her classmates started vanishing. ""When I got to sixth grade [in 2013], I started hearing about girls as young as 12 or 13 getting married. They would come to the school to say goodbye. I remember thinking they were making a big mistake, even before I knew the facts,"" Omaima speaks of young girls at her school at Za'atari refugee camp. Omaima runs painting and acting classes to educate young girls and parents on underage marriage.  Under Jordanian law, the minimum age of marriage is set at 18 years. Religious (Shari'a) judges may authorize marriages involving children as young as 15, provided the child's best interests are taken into account. Despite the law, and the best efforts of the authorities, there are also cases of local sheikhs conducting unofficial marriages involving girls 14 or younger, which are not considered legal under the law. In pre-war Syria as a whole, an average of 13 per cent of all marriages involved someone below the age of 18. Among Syrian refugees living in Jordan, this rate had risen to 32 per cent by the first quarter of 2014."
{"Image ImageWidth": "4981", "Image ImageLength": "3321", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "15-year-old Omaima is the star of her community. She advocates for women\u2019s right to education and against underage marriage. ; Omaima, from Dara'a, fled Syria with her family after her close uncle was killed and felt it was no longer safe for them to stay in Syria. \n\nWhen Omaima first arrived at Jordan\u2019s Za\u2019atari camp in 2012, the 11-year-old refugee from Syria was not aware of the issue of early marriage. Then some of her classmates started vanishing. \"When I got to sixth grade [in 2013], I started hearing about girls as young as 12 or 13 getting married. They would come to the school to say goodbye. I remember thinking they were making a big mistake, even before I knew the facts,\u201d Omaima speaks of young girls at her school at Za'atari refugee camp. Omaima runs painting and acting classes to educate young girls and parents on underage marriage.\n\nUnder Jordanian law, the minimum age of marriage is set at 18 years. Religious (Shari\u2019a) judges may authorize marriages involving children as young as 15, provided the child\u2019s best interests are taken into account. Despite the law, and the best efforts of the authorities, there are also cases of local sheikhs conducting unofficial marriages involving girls 14 or younger, which are not considered legal under the law. In pre-war Syria as a whole, an average of 13 per cent of all marriages involved someone below the age of 18. Among Syrian refugees living in Jordan, this rate had risen to 32 per cent by the first quarter of 2014.", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark III", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2016:09:22 16:07:44", "Image Copyright": "\u00a9 UNHCR/Annie Sakkab", "Image ExifOffset": "1860", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2546", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6068", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1600", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:12:10 20:05:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:12:10 20:05:00", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "665241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "86797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTime": "74", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "74", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "74", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "870", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "472", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1600", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1600", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "302022005892", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 24, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF24mm f/2.8 IS USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "000000332c"}