9岁肯尼亚女孩被迫与78岁老人结婚

2015-10-15 10:06:12来源：网络

　　尤尼斯今年13岁，在肯尼亚桑布鲁部落长大。根据部落习俗，她的父母帮她包办婚姻。其中还包括进行女子割礼，同家族中的男性同房。在被迫嫁给祖父级男子。四年后，尤尼斯成功逃跑。

　　A girl in Kenya who was forced to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather when she was only nine years old has been freed after four years of hell.

　　Younis, 13, who is part of the Samburu tribe, was married off by her parents in accordance to tribal custom, which also includes female genital mutilation and offering girls to male relatives for sex.

　　She was forced to live with the 78-year-old man for four years until she escaped and walked barefoot to a boarding school for girls called the Samburu Girls Foundation.

　　Explaining her harrowing and heartbreaking tale, Younis told CNN: ’When I was about nine years old, my father married me off to an old man who was 78 years old’

　　’He told me that I will be a wife but I was just innocent, I wanted to come to school. But that man wanted me to be a third wife. I told him, I will not be your wife, and he caned me.’

　　Luckily for Younis and around 200 other girls across Kenya, the Samburu Girls Foundation offered her a way out.

　　She said: ’I heard that there is a woman who helps children.

　　’I came from Baragoi barefoot, I didn’t even have shoes that day. I came to Maralal. Kulea took me to the children’s office, she rescued me.’

　　Run by Josephine Kulea, the foundation takes in girls who have been disowned by their families and helps them deal with the trauma of forced genital mutilation or any other horrific events they have suffered.

　　Josephine, who is also part of the Samburu tribe, said: ’I realised we are the only ones doing FGM, female genital mutilation, the other communities are not doing it.

　　’I came to realise that there are things that are not right and I need to make a difference, that’s how I started rescuing girls.’

　　Early marriage is illegal in Kenya but Josephine explained that people within the Samburu community were not pleased that she was rescuing girls from forced unions.

　　She said: ’Growing up from this community, everyone looks at me like, ’You should be like us, you should not be fighting us.

　　’It’s a risk for me but I still give it a go.’

　　While Younis’ story is shocking unfortunately it is not a rare one. Josephine’s first rescue was one that involved members of her own family.

　　She said: ’My first rescue was my two cousins. One was 10 years old and she was the one getting married; most of the time in my community, when the girl is getting married young, that is when they undergo female circumcision.

　　’I was alerted that she was going to get married, so I went and rescued her, and after I rescued her I took her to school.

　　’Two days later I get a call and I’m told there was a wedding in that village, and I’m like, ’I have the girl, so who got married?’ They said it was the little sister who was seven years old - they replaced her because the cows were here and any girl had to go.’

　　Beading is also another tribal custom Kulea and her team are fighting to rescue girls from.

　　The tradition involves girls being bought by members of the same clan for sex before they are married. The more beads a girl has around her neck the more it will cost the man.

　　Josephine explained how she was in contact with worried Samburu mothers who want to protect their daughters from being beaded, one of whom was only seven years old.

　　Despite so much suffering, Josephine is optimistic about the future, she said: ’ There is hope. And I know when we take more kids to school in future there will be a difference in my community.’

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