In this picture taken Wednesday, July 18, 2012, Rama, 14, poses in her bedroom in the remote village of Hawkantaki, Niger. Her mother says she is 12. Her husband brought a 100,000 francs ($200) dowry for her in the fall of 2011. Although her mother denies that poverty played a role in precipitating the marriage, Rama says her family would normally have waited at least one more year. “It’s because the rainy season was not good that I was married off, and because we are very poor." Last year, before the start of the harvest, there were 10 girls in Hawkantaki between the ages of 11 and 15. By spring 2012, seven were married, and another two are engaged. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
