You know the story.
Two star-crossed lovers; two angry, dissaproving families; an attempted escape from the couple's destiny, as had been culutrally defined; tragedy: the young lovers wind up dead.
No, although it sounds like the plot from "Romeo & Juliet," this happened, recently, when a young couple ran away from their Afghani village, toward Iran (I know, escape to Iran? Ouch, Afghanistan), in hopes of being together at the disapproval of their families.
So, of course, the Taliban was sent out to get them back. They did. Then they shot them. Publicly. In front of the mosque where they had just been condemned by fatwa.
Here, The Huffington Post, compares various sources for the story from around the world (one of the cool things they, and Slate.com, does well).
Perhaps, if the couple had been armed (above), things would've wound up a bit differently.
Or, maybe, everyone could've settled it with a game of Twister, like this old Afghani couple celebrating the 250th annivesary of terrorism. Seriously.
A very real possibility is that the young girl (14, according to one report) would've been expected to marry a much older man, arranged by the families.
From where I found the photograph above.
"The girl in the photo looks very innocent in this picture, yet highlights the growing problems of exploitation of children in this world and is aptly named the “UNICEF Photo of the Year” 2007.
This photo taken by Stephanie Sinclair shows a wedding couple in Afghanistan, the bride, Ghulam is only 11 years old, and the groom, Mohammed is 40 years old.
Ghulam’s parents said they gave the daughter away because they needed the money. The Groom promised that he will send the girl to school, but many doubt his claim. The women in Ghulam’s village Damarda in Afghanistan’s Ghor province say the men don’t want educated women. So, most likely Ghulam will not be schooled and end up getting children very soon."
No comments:
Post a Comment