The Reality of Stealing

While we were in Jalal-abad, we got to know some of the girls that were staying with Aisuluu. One of them was a girl named Nafisa. She was 19 yrs old and working at the café and I think she was studying too. She was a very joyful girl, outgoing and friendly- she was very cool to be around. Though one day while we were at the café she had finished work and left with some friends. We did not see her that night at the apartment, we had found out later that she had been stolen by her relatives and given as a bride to a man about 10 yrs older than she was. Can you imagine being a girl- you’re working, or going to school, you have dreams about your life- what you’d like to do, etc- and then someone steals you- your whole life interrupted and changed forever. Though I later found out more of her story….this had been the second time she was stolen! The first time she was stolen she was only 16!! She ran away from her first husband because he was so abusive, and which resulted in her having a miscarriage. I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around this whole concept, mostly because when I was 16, I was looking into colleges thinking about what I was going to do with my life. I never had to worry or consider the possibility of someone or my own relatives stealing me to make me a bride. I think that this is one of the more difficult things about this culture.