Girlhood ended abruptly

I was a teenager, growing up in Kuwait, my friend was a year older than me. One beautiful spring day, we were playing hide an d seek, laughing, chatting, and talking about what we want to become when we grow up.

They were our next door neighbours, and that day there was an unusual activity in their house. Some workers were decorating it with hundreds of little colourful bulbs used for special occasions.
I asked her what was going on, she had no idea. Before the sun set, my friend was called by her mother and was told to bathe. It was a weird request at that time of the day, and when my friend resisted the order, her mother gave her a stern look and she had to abide. That was the last time I saw my friend.

Thirty days later
We met one month later, but she was never the same! A few hours later, I saw my mother getting ready to go to our neighbour’s house, it was then that I learnt about the bitter truth; the occasion was a wedding, and the bride was my friend.

I was angry and asked my mum why my friend had not been told about her fate. She told me that it was their tradition and they feared she could resist or run away putting the family to shame. Instead after her bath, she was prepared as a bride and locked in the room waiting for the groom, who happened to be a cousin.

When I visited
While family and friends celebrated in the yard, ate big meals and danced to traditional music. I could not imagine what was going through my friend’s mind, her fears and uncertainty on a night that is supposed to be the best night of her life.

She stopped coming to school and upon insisting to see her, my mother took me there for a visit. Her mother warned me that she is no longer the same. She said, “your friend is now a woman and will no longer come to play with you!”

Seated in her room, covered from head to toe, I could only see her eyes as she stared on the floor, that day we did not talk.

Not a unique case
A few months later we moved house and I came back to see her many years later. Things had changed and she had a bunch of children running around, we chatted about many things, but somehow, we never talked about that day when her girlhood abruptly ended.

Unfortunately, my friend’s story is not unique, nor has it stopped happening in some parts of the world, though many decades have passed. Girls are still married off at a very young age and without their consent. They are literally sold to a much older man, who use them as labourers during the day time and wives at night.

These acts that in my eyes mount to crimes against humanity are left unpunished. How many more years will we wait to stop these barbaric acts committed in the name of tradition? How many more girls will have their lives and freedom of choice stopped at such a tender age? Who knows!

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