'Young girls are married off to old men... it does happen'

A Newsround television presenter whose grandmother and aunt were both child brides believes Britain and America must take action against the number of girls being "bartered" for marriage.

Nelufar Hedayat, 23, said she was aware of circumstances where nine-year-old girls were married to 60-year-old men. Miss Hedayat, who has recently started working for the BBC's children's programme, produced a documentary aired on Monday for BBC3 called The Truth About Child Brides.

She said: "I had a very naive understanding of it when I started. When I went to see my grandmother in Afghanistan in 2007 she loved her husband. She was married at the age of 12 and had eight children. For her it was completely natural and normal.

"My aunt was married at 15 and her marriage was the same. She was married to a relative who the family knew well. They are still together and they have beautiful children."

However, Miss Hedayat said: "It's possible they would not tell me what it was really like. In my family it seems fairly benign but I think they are looking back on things from 30 to 40 years ago and they have had their families since then. They have moved on past those difficult years that they have forgotten or chosen not to remember."

Miss Hedayat, whose mother married in her late twenties after becoming the first person in her family to go to university, said: "There is a direct link between education and what age a girl gets married. In rural villages in Afghanistan it is still an issue where girls are bartered and there they are seen as things to be traded.

"It takes time to change those attitudes. I think that's something that needs to be focused on by western countries. In Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh children are betrothed as young as five or six. A nine-year-old will be married to a 60 year-old man. It does still happen."