In Lebanon, more than 13% of Lebanese girls get married before they are 18.

There is no CIVIL law for marriage, so couples only wed under religious law

And all the religious sects in Lebanon allow child marriage.

So a girl as young as 9 can legally get married.

Women's Rights NGO Kafa asked us to pressure the religious establishment by rallying the public against child marriage.

Contrary to other countries where personal laws are civil laws, in Lebanon personal laws are religious laws and hence governed by religious authorities that have condoned child marriage for years.

KAFA has been trying for years to change that situation by implementing civil laws to regulate all personal matters.

That fight is not only complicated because of the powerful religious institutions the NGO is fighting but also because popular support is hard to earn from different communities. In addition to this, in order to risk any censorship by authorities and avoid issue by TV stations, posting the film online was our only media route-especially since most media outlets in Lebanon are closely affiliated to sects.

This initiative was implemented to grant KAFA public support and hence appropriate pressuring tools against ruling authorities.

A picture, showing the old groom and the young bride, taken during the film shoot was posted live on social media and triggered a conversation while people went on sharing it and claiming their outrage.

The film was posted 48h later on KAFA’s Facebook and YouTube accounts and on all pages where the picture was shared previously.

The film was then organically posted on numerous local and regional news pages and accounts, allowing for a much wider reach and massive shares.

It is safe to say that the online viral aspect of the filmed stunt spiraled out of our control as it gained immense local, regional, and international exposure.

- More than 100 million organic views spread across different accounts and platforms

- More than 100 publications and TV channels in more than 50 countries covered the story, among which are The Huffington Post, The independent, The DailyMail, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, CNN, France 2 , TV5

- 95% of the Lebanese Internet population reached.

- More than 700 million people reached worldwide

- Facebook: 99.97% positive sentiment

- Few weeks later, the UN adopted our campaign to be its own anti-child marriage #Idont campaign.

- Later, a famous prankster was inspired by our campaign and replicated our social experiment in the middle of Times Square, New York.

Our audience is primarily the Lebanese public, including public figures, influencers, people at large: anyone and everyone who could put pressure on the religious authorities.

Our second target was to reach a regional and global level and maximize awareness on the child marriage issue in Lebanon, as well as increase the pressure.

The video was posted on YouTube and embedded on Facebook. Facebook was used as the main platform of the campaign, where the video gathered views and reactions from the audience.

The platform allowed users to share the video directly from KAFA’s page and react on it, tagging their friends and commenting with their opinion. With the controversial nature of the content the conversation on Facebook helped promote the awareness we were seeking and mostly rallied a huge number if people around the cause.

KAFA is a Lebanese NGO that fights for women, children and familial laws in the country.

Contrary to other countries where personal laws are civil laws, in Lebanon personal laws are religious laws and hence governed by religious authorities. Those same religious authorities that have condoned child marriage for years.

KAFA has been trying for years to change that situation by implementing civil laws to regulate all personal matters.

That fight is not only complicated because of the powerful religious instances but also because popular support is hard to earn from different communities and rites.

We were approached by the NGO to create awareness around the existence of child marriage in Lebanon today and give the NGO proper pressuring tools to use against the relevant authorities and make a change.

Research showed that amongst those laws, a girl as young as 9 can marry. We realized that not all people were aware that this law existed or was still applicable.

Our objective was to raise awareness on the issue and rally public support around the cause.