Tuesday 3 July 2018

The 11-year-old girl divorcing her 38-year-old husband


After the abuse, Amal said that she went to her father for help, but he kept sending her back. Eventually she escaped with the aid of her husband's first wife.
"He treated me horribly," Amal said of her husband. "Then when the beatings became every day, I went to the police station."
A doctor who evaluated Amal's injuries at the station found evidence that she'd been tied up and assaulted.
Though he had heard her story before, Amal's father wept while his daughter talked to us.
"Twice, she came to my home, twice, and was terrified and frightened. I sent her back," he told CNN. "I am regretful."
Amal's father, who works as a tinsmith laborer in the street, is raising six daughters on his own. When he described why he married Amal off -- despite her young age -- he cited tradition and honor.
"When I let him marry my daughter, it was on trust, on the basis that he would look after her, let her continue with her education and honor her as agreed," he said. "But I found that this was not happening. It was all beating, humiliation and provocation."
Many Sudanese parents marry off their daughters in hopes of avoiding poverty, violence or family shame. Unmarried women are often stigmatized as agir, "infertile," or bayra, "not demanded for marriage." But, in reality, child brides are more likely to face sexual, physical and psychological violence, according to UNICEF.

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