Justified Pedophilia in Somalia

 

In Somalia girls as young as 13 are married off by their parents .This is because there are  no laws that forbid  this act  and save these young angels .The very parent they trusted marry them off because  either they see them as financial burden or source of income in terms of dowry .They are sold as low as 100$ ,this would have been perceived so disgusting and vile in western world but a country where are women rights don’t exist such bad traditions are justified by culture.

 There is an Somali proverb that says a woman should either be in her house(married) or be in a  Grave(dead)…that is so demeaning , meaning a Woman is seen as  a cause of  shame because it is believed if  she is not married early she might get pregnant out of wedlock and hence spoil the honor of the family. Like this Saying most Proverbs about women in my culture are by men and mostly demean women.

 These marriages are so heart-braking because most of these girls are married against their wish and most of them get divorced before they are even 20 years or the husband marries more wives while she young mother, it is so unfortunate.

Once these girls are divorced with or without kids they are perceived to second-hand or not good enough because they are not virgins anymore hence, they develop low self-esteem. They can’t go school because of the stigma associated with being a divorcee and do not have skills to improve their lives and so end up living in a dilapidated situations.

 My hope is to create as so much awareness about this issue and use whatever medium I can get to pass my message to everyone in the world and see how these bad traditions can be abolished in my society and my country, although it might take a long time.

 

By Habiba Ali