Pushed to accept marriage, Iraq’s displaced child brides face bleak future
In the photo that Aziza produces on her mobile phone, her 14-year-old daughter Layla is wearing a pink satin dress and smiling meekly at the camera. "This was her engagement party," said 35-year-old Aziza. "(Her fiance) was 22 years old. His family came to us at various times to ask for our daughter. The third […]Sofia Barbarani writes for Thomson Reuters Foundation:
In the photo that Aziza produces on her mobile phone, her 14-year-old daughter Layla is wearing a pink satin dress and smiling meekly at the camera.
"This was her engagement party," said 35-year-old Aziza. "(Her fiance) was 22 years old. His family came to us at various times to ask for our daughter. The third time we accepted."
At first Aziza and the young man's parents struggled to convince the two to accept the arrangement but when they did, the wedding preparations were quick to get underway.
It was not the first time Layla had received a suitor. Her parents had turned down many offers of marriage back in Mosul, the family's home town before they fled a campaign by Islamic State to capture Iraq's second biggest city in 2014.
