I grew up in a cult and was married at 12 — in Texas

Want to listen to the article? Great–listen here! My mother was a liberal feminist; my father was a religious zealot who left the family to live by the cult leader. Two months before I married, I had my first period. I still wore a training bra. I was 12 and had never kissed a boy, […]

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On Guinevere Turner’s “When the World Didn’t End”

Want to listen to the article? Great–listen here! ON JANUARY 5, 1975, when Guinevere Turner was seven, the world was supposed to end. She grabbed her favorite toy and donned a fancy dress, but the spaceship to take Turner to Venus never arrived. Turner’s new memoir, When the World Didn’t End, follows her life as she grows […]

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Letter: Child Marriage is Never Cutesy

Want to listen to the article? Great–listen here! I am a survivor of an Islamic Temporary Marriage, called a mut’ah. I can attest that framing child marriages as cutesy and heartwarming rather than complex misogynistic practices is unacceptable. Child marriage is never okay—permanent or temporary. Despite their name, temporary marriages are anything but temporary; they change […]

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