The first thing that comes to mind isn’t very recent and I’m not certain that this may be considered as news. It doesn’t come from a newspaper or any of the other items listed but actually from an unlikely source. It came from an old magazine I read on Sunday night after I put my little cousin that I was babysitting to sleep. It was about 14 year old Rubina Bi from West Bengal who had been tricked and sold by her uncle Ammar. He had told her that they would go shopping, she was thrilled. They had taken a train and as the time passed she grew weary had fallen asleep. When she woke she soon realized that something wasn’t right. She had asked her uncle what was going on and he simply replied with “I changed my mind; we’re going to Kashmir instead to visit your old friend Shakeela.” According to the article Shakeela was an old friend who had moved away to marry a wealthy businessman. When they had arrived and they had seen each other she saw a completely different person, Shakeela was “deeply miserable.” Ammar had apparently sold Shakeela for 500 pounds to a man three times her age. Rubina Bi was scared for herself after she had heard the horrible news.
As I continued to read the article knowing what was going to happen I was mortified. As is made obvious in from the title her uncle sells her to a man twice her age. She decides to confront him; “this isn’t right. You have to take me home, my mom and dad will be frantic.” She tells him, and he replied with “don’t worry ill give them the money so they wont have to live in poverty any more.” ‘as he walks out the door leaving her behind with her knew husband and life.’ The article went on about how her life was with this new husband of hers. “At first she tried to escape and got to a phone finally getting in touch with her mother. Her mother thought that she was dead and hadn’t heard a word from her uncle and hadn’t seen any of the money that was promised. She sadly realized the sad truth that she has no way of getting home and reluctantly goes back to being a wife and soon a mother. At the age of 16 she is married and has a son who as she puts it “is her future now.” ”
Now as I said before this isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when we say or think of news but it is the first story that comes to mind and that’s what you asked for. It honestly struck a nerve to know that this happened and nothing was done about it. At the end of the article they asked if this was legal and the answer was quite disturbing. It read “The legal age to get married in India is 18, making Rubina and Fayaz’s marriage void in the eyes of the law. Even so, weddings involving child brides are all too common. They aren’t registered, its estimated there are tens of thousands of them taking place.” So you ask “why is it the first story that comes to min?” Well simply put its not only sad but its truly disturbing.
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