Sunday, November 24, 2013

"I sold my sister for 300 dollars."

Amani has just turned 22. Two months ago she fled from the civil war in Syria and left her house in capital Damascus. After a dangerous nightlong trip she arrived at Zaatari, the refugee camp just over the border in Jordan, where her parents and two sisters had already lived for over a year.

In Damascus she had lived together with her husband and five children in an apartment in the old city centre. Like many Syrian girls she got married when she was still a child. She had just turned 15 when she found the man of her dreams and decided to wed.

“In Syria things are different,” she tells IPS. “Girls get married very early; it is a tradition. But it doesn’t mean we are all married off to strangers. I got to choose my husband and he got to choose me. We could never be more happy than when we were together.”

Five children later, the civil war broke out in the country she loved but whose unfair policies and corrupt government she disliked. Living in the capital where the government of President Bashar al-Assad was still in control did not make life easier for her and her family.

Her husband took up arms from the first days of the armed revolt and joined the Free Syrian Army. Soon, he became leader of one of the biggest battalions fighting the regime in Damascus. Full story...

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  3. Syria's refugee brides: “The Saudis usually ask for 12-year-olds.”
  4. Saudi men flocking to Indonesia for "halal sex"
  5. Syrian refugees 'sold for marriage' in Jordan...
  6. Rape and sham marriages: the fear of Syria's women refugees...
  7. 80-year-old Saudi marries 14-year-old girl...

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