NOUAKCHOTT, 9 December 2008 (IRIN): Marrying off Mauritanian girls as young as six years old to men in Gulf states is turning into a profitable trafficking enterprise as a typically rural marriage practice migrates to the city, according to urban families.
– It used to be widespread in the rural milieu, but now child marriages are more developed in urban areas as a new business, said Sidi Mohamed Ould Jyyide, a sociologist in the capital Nouakchott. – One’s family can get rich for selling a daughter to a wealthy man. Early marriage is almost a guarantee to make a profit in no time.
Price of marriage
The sociologist said what used to be a cultural practice where only symbolic gifts were exchanged has turned into a business in which mostly poor urban families try to sell their daughters to wealthy families in marriage. Based on a girl’s beauty and age – the younger, the more valuable – her family can demand from 4.000 US dollar to tens of thousands of dollars, according to Jyyide.
– Smugglers are ready to pay for all expenses of travelling and accommodation for such girls, he added. These “smugglers” can be paid intermediaries working for men seeking child-brides, or family members of the girls.
Oumelkhary Mint Sidi Mohamed, 14, said when she was eight her father took her from her village of Adel Beghrou near Mauritania’s border with Mali to an aunt in Nouakchott, who transported her to Saudi Arabia.
Mohamed told IRIN her family’s dreams of wealth turned into her nightmare when she was raped by a cousin while waiting to be introduced to wealthy men in Saudi Arabia. – [To avoid shame], my family arranged with him to take me back home [to Mauritania] as his wife, Mohamed told IRIN. – I found myself in his house as a servant. He beat me as soon as my family left. I reported my endless suffering to my father to end the terrible relation.
The girl told IRIN that even after other family members intervened to help her get a divorce after one year, her father again tried to sell her in marriage in Saudi Arabia. Family friend Rabie Ould Idomou told IRIN he then stepped in and adopted Mohamed so he could be her legal guardian and keep her in Mauritania. – She must be rehabilitated [from her childhood trauma] in fairness and tranquillity, he said.
Idomou told IRIN that after getting the father’s approval he is now trying to enrol Mohamed in school.
Læs hele artiklen: www.irinnews.org
