Just a reminder | Marriage on a trust receipt.. "Shaima", the story of a new victim of "child marriage" in Minya

“Shaima”.. a child not yet fourteen years old, who overnight found herself a victim of “child marriage” in Minya.. On a night unlike any other, the child “Shaima” was surprised to find that her mother had brought in a woman to make her up in a way she had never known. The child was delighted, as if the night were a festival night for her; Shaima did not know then that her childhood was about to be killed, and that she would find herself in a dark, gloomy tunnel with no one in it but her.

Before the woman in her forties had finished making up Shaima, who lives in one of the villages of Mallawi district, the eldest uncle, Abdullah, began knocking on the door with his wooden walking stick. Her uncle’s arrival was no surprise to Shaima, as she was used to his visits, especially after her father, a farmer, had died. In his loud voice the uncle said, «Lord, protect us, where is our bride? I want to congratulate her». Shaima’s heart began to race, and her little heart almost stopped.

With quick steps the mother went to Shaima and whispered in her ear: today is your engagement day; «Khaled» has asked for your hand, a real man with plenty of money and his own flat in his father’s house; he is not much older than you, he is 35.

«I knew nothing about family and married life, but my mother explained to me what married life looks like. I pretended to understand, as if I had taken in what she told me, while I was completely unaware. My mother kept on and on talking, and I was talking to myself and asking in silence: “Have I become a great burden on you, mother? If my marriage will give you relief, then I will agree. If killing the child inside me will give you relief, then I agree.. This is what the fourteen-year-old «Shaima» told us.

My father’s brother «Abdullah» paid no attention to the age difference between me and «Khaled»; ages do not concern them, their aim is «to see the girl settled.. and that he has money».. Questions began to turn in my mind, and with the mind of a little girl I found no answers to them. Among them: I did not have a national ID card, but that was not a problem standing in the way of the marriage; they found a solution when my eldest uncle «Abdullah» called the village marriage registrar, who was known for “marrying off underage girls on a trust receipt” left blank.

Yes, I married Khaled on a trust receipt, which the registrar takes from the groom to guarantee that the husband will register the contract when the girl reaches the legal age, thinking that he is guaranteeing the girl’s rights. But the truth is that the registrar cares about nothing but the «sweetener», the price of his non-existent conscience.

I was not a child who lived the innocence of her childhood; I became a wife at the age of fourteen. I did not know how to live the new life I was going through alone, carrying the burdens of life and responsibilities that not even a mountain could bear. In his eyes I was always the negligent wife who did not care for her home and fell short of his marital rights, and so the quarrels broke out from the first month of the marriage, and he began insulting me and beating me.

The days passed between us in this way, and I did not know who this ferocious beast was who demanded everything of me with orders and coercion, as if I were a servant. He forced me to serve his mother and clean the whole house, even though his sisters lived with them in the same house.

The «child» dreamed of living her innocent childhood like her peers, but what happened to her forces you to call it slave trading.

As she spoke, the child looked up as if remembering a hard night she had been through, sighed sighs that came from deep in her chest, and said: one night, after getting up at seven in the morning every day to serve them in the house, «my husband, his mother and his brothers and sisters», I felt extremely exhausted and could not move, as if I were paralysed, with severe nausea. She went with her husband to the doctor, and there the doctor announced the news of her pregnancy: «Congratulations, Khaled, Shaima is pregnant», insisting that Shaima have complete rest at home so that the baby would not be harmed.

Here her tears mixed with the water of her ablutions, and she began to ask herself whether to thank God or to ask His forgiveness.. I was very afraid and felt no joy, because I did not know the meaning of the feeling of motherhood.. It was as if the doctor had never told them to let me rest; their demands began to increase, and the cruel days passed as if they were years, until the time came for me to give birth and I had my daughter Yasmine. I was very happy with her, and when I saw her I felt joy, but I found no joy in the eyes of my husband and his family; they had wanted a boy.

His mother turned against me and my husband’s cruelty grew harsher, and between the cruelty and the hostility my dignity vanished and the insults and severe beatings increased. I had no choice but to go to my mother’s house carrying my little daughter in my arms.. My features changed a great deal; my childish innocence disappeared while I was still a child of fifteen. Night after night passed, and when I tried to claim my rights and my daughter’s, his reply was: what proves that you are my wife? You have no maintenance from me, and neither you nor your daughter has any rights; I married you on a trust receipt, and the courts take forever, «as he put it»… I now stand by the roadside waiting for my fate. How can I separate from him when the law does not recognise my marriage, since I am under the legal age? «My family destroyed me».