Among the perils of war some of the first victims are women and children. News are coming from refugee camps that some women are being forced into marriage in Jordan to escape the Syrian conflict.
Families of the young women are accepting sums of monies from rich Saudis or other middle eastern citizens, usually much older than they, to enter into marriages that benefit the men and the family only, and do nothing for the women, except being sold for sex.
One girl, who was a minor at the time of the arranged marriage to a 50 year old in Amman, Jordan, was forced to marry and then successfully divorced her husband, who paid the paltry sum of 3,000 to obtain her in marriage.
She did it, she says, to help her family, who had just arrived in refugee camps and were in dire condition. Her husband, treated her like a servant and disrespected her. She had dreams of marrying a 20 year old boy in Syria before the conflict exploded. She has deep blue eyes and fair skin.
A human rights watchgroup says that more than 500,000 refugees, all women, are at high risk of ending up in these arranged marriages. In fact the great majority of refugees are women and children.
The truth is that the camps have scant resources, and there is not enough money coming in to prevent such tragedies. If there were enough money, the women might not have to prostitute themselves in such a way.
The problem is that some NGOs are involved in the arranging, one of them, Kitab - al Sunna, who is providing the refugees with aid and food, is funded through worldwide donations, has a direct role in the 'matchmaking'. The girl who had been forced to marry the Saudi in Amman relates that when her mother went to see the NGO for help, they asked her to send her daughter so they would find a husband for her.
Kitab al Sunna, for their part, defend their action as some sort of pacific matchmaking that helps those women who have either lost their husband in the conflict or to ensure that Arab girls marry Arab men.
The problem is that most of the men are between 50 and 80 years old, and that in truth, the age of majority is not checked before the arrangement is made. The men furthermore ask that the girls be very young and that they be very fair skinned or blue eyed. The NGO stands to gain a fee of about 300$ if the arrangement ends in marriage.
Thus the reality of war darkens more every day.
Source: BBC news 5.15.13
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