Forced into abusive marriages, Syrian child brides increasingly turn to suicide

WEST BEKAA, Lebanon — Fourteen-year-old Salwa chugged the bleach for as long as she could. She ignored the agonizing burn going from her throat to stomach. She tuned out the sound of gunfire outside her kitchen window. It wasn’t the Syrian war she was trying to escape. It was her marriage.

Her 27-year-old husband was drunk again and wanted to have sex. If she said no, he’d beat her — drag her around the floor by her hair, slam her head against the wall or whip her with his belt. So she said she’d be right back and poisoned herself.

“I returned to the bedroom and thought, this will be the last time,” said Salwa. But she didn’t die.

“When I woke up the next morning, I said, ‘F*ck you, God.’”

Salwa, whose name has been changed for her protection, is now 20 years old. She is a refugee — and one of the more than 40 percent of Syrian girls in Lebanon forced into early marriage due to the Syrian civil war, according to UNICEF. That’s nearly double the rate of early marriage in Lebanon since the crisis began.

Marriage is seen as a way to protect girls from sexual assault — and give parents one less mouth to feed. In fact, Lebanon’s struggling economy, coupled with the United Nations’ shortage of aid, can leave refugees desperate for a dowry.

“In many respects, girls are seen as a commodity,” said Fiona Carr, a spokesperson for Girls Not Brides, an international NGO dedicated to ending child marriage. “It’s like, where can I place this? For some parents, getting a dowry is a high commodity, so they’ll place her with the highest bidder.”

What parents don’t realize, though, is child brides are at a higher risk of being raped, getting HIV, dropping out of school and continuing a life of poverty, according to Girls Not Brides. And many become depressed, or, as in Salwa’s case, suicidal.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/forced-into-abusive-marriages-syrian-child-brides-increasingly-turn-to-suicide/