About 30 people joined in on the rally.
NEWARK -- Naila Amin was engaged at the age of 8.
And by 15, Amin, an American citizen, was forced by her family into marrying her 28-year-old cousin, who was living in Pakistan.
"I lived with my rapist -- I cooked for my rapist," said Amin, who was brought back home to the U.S. by officials in March 2005 after being held in Pakistan for five months. "I was lucky because I lived."
That's why the now 26-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., attended her first protest Tuesday afternoon just outside Newark Penn Station on Market Street -- to rally for Assembly Bill 3091, which would bar anyone under the age of 18 from marrying or entering into a civil union in New Jersey.
The bill, which was introduced in February, has five primary sponsors, three of which are Democrats and two of which are Republicans.
About 30 people joined Amin at the rally, which was organized by Unchained At Last, a non-profit that organizers say has helped or is helping more than 200 women and girls leave forced marriages.
The protesters, some of whom wore chains on their arms and tape on their mouths, donned bridal gowns and veils as speakers yelled into a megaphone of their hopes to end child and forced marriages.
"Girls should be girls, not brides," and "3091, we won't stop until it's done," could be heard as some ran by the rally to catch their westbound bus, while others stopped to listen in on the nearly hour-long protest.
While the minimum marriage age is 18 in the U.S., the Garden State allows for two exceptions, according to Fraidy Reiss, founder and executive director of Unchained At Last.
For one, children ages 16 and 17 can marry with parental consent, Reiss said, and two, children ages 15 and younger can marry with judicial approval.
And this is more common than one may imagine, Reiss said. From 1995 to 2012, nearly 3,500 children as young as 13 were married in New Jersey, she said.
"It's 2016, it's wrong and we can stop it," Amanda Parker, interim executive director of the AHA Foundation, said of the "common sense" bill.
As for Amin, she said she will soon have an associate degree in human services and plans to create a group-home for girls who have gone through what she has.
"Child marriages are happening in our own backyard when they shouldn't be," she said, holding a poster of a photograph of her when she was young and married "It's surreal that it even happened."
Luke Nozicka may be reached at lnozicka@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @lukenozicka. Find NJ.com on Facebook.