CEOUnchained At Last
Fraidy Reiss is a survivor turned activist. She was 19 when she was forced to marry a stranger who turned out to be violent. She lost all sexual and reproductive rights, forced to have unprotected marital sex and to have two children. When she finally escaped that marriage, her family shunned her.
Fraidy rebuilt her life and founded Unchained At Last, an NGO that combats forced and child marriage in the United States through direct services and systems change.
Fraidy’s research and writing on forced and child marriage have been published extensively, making her one of the foremost experts on these abuses in the U.S. She has been featured in books (including as one of the titular women in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s The Book of Gutsy Women), films and countless TV, radio and print news stories.
Through Unchained, Fraidy has supported some 1,000 survivors as they fled forced marriage. She also leads a national movement that has banned child marriage in 10 U.S. states – and counting.