When 13-year-old Sameem Ali was offered a reward for doing household chores — a holiday with her extended family on the other side of the world — she was overjoyed.
Still a child, Sameem imagined sandcastles and a beach to play on. The reality was very different. When she travelled from her family home in Moss Side, an inner-city suburb of Greater Manchester, she found herself in a small Pakistani village with no electricity and no running water.
It was then that her mother told her she was there to marry a man twice her age whom she had seen only once at a family get-together in Pakistan.
‘At first, I thought she was joking,’ says Sameem, who is now in her late 20s. ‘Then I thought, “I’m only 13, I can’t get married”.’
On the day of the wedding, her future husband’s family arrived in their best clothes. Sameem was pulled out of bed and given a creased red traditional wedding robe to wear. Her mother told her not to make a scene. Full story...
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Still a child, Sameem imagined sandcastles and a beach to play on. The reality was very different. When she travelled from her family home in Moss Side, an inner-city suburb of Greater Manchester, she found herself in a small Pakistani village with no electricity and no running water.
It was then that her mother told her she was there to marry a man twice her age whom she had seen only once at a family get-together in Pakistan.
‘At first, I thought she was joking,’ says Sameem, who is now in her late 20s. ‘Then I thought, “I’m only 13, I can’t get married”.’
On the day of the wedding, her future husband’s family arrived in their best clothes. Sameem was pulled out of bed and given a creased red traditional wedding robe to wear. Her mother told her not to make a scene. Full story...
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