"I was about 13 when my family decided to marry me off to a man of 29. I cried, I resisted. The pain was doubled because even at that age I was already drawn to reading about rights and freedoms. My suffering came from knowing that my rights were being violated, along with my adolescence and childhood. But soon I had to accept the situation"
"I remember the nights before meeting him: my mother threatened to strangle me in my sleep, while my father described in detail how he would take me to the relatives' village and throw me into a well. I was left alone to endure beatings, psychological pressure and the daily chorus of being a shame I begged my aunts, who themselves had been married off young and against their will."
A 13-year-old girl was forced into marriage with a 29-year-old through family violence, threats, and coercion. Physical assaults included hair ripping and face-smashing, and threats included removal from school and death. Parents threatened strangulation and being thrown into a well. Relatives who had experienced similar forced marriages refused to intervene. The girl internalized shame, blamed her maturing body and menstruation, and felt hatred toward her future husband and the wedding rituals. The forced marriage erased educational opportunities, autonomy, and childhood, replacing them with sustained psychological and physical abuse.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]