Submitted by: Submitted by richfeel
Views: 269
Words: 600
Pages: 3
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 04/10/2011 07:06 PM
Dear Ama
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Dear Ama [Mother],
I sat there wearing this red and gold wedding scarf you
stitched for me. Sewing up your happiness, not mine. You told
me that he was tall and fair. That he was young and healthy. You
promised me I would be happy. Then he arrived with his family.
He wasn’t my age. He was older. Much older. His beady eyes
leered at my breasts. Did you not see the scars on his face? I
wanted to scream, but I couldn’t, for my father’s dignity and my
father’s pride.
Bright lights. The music. Everything made me dizzy. You
made me sit there and smile.
You clapped and laughed as the musicians played their
drums. You didn’t feel my anguish, did you? You offered food to
the guests. You smiled for the photographer, and you even embraced
your future son-in-law. I watched the clock as it slowly
ticked away. Ticked away my freedom. No longer a daughter,
just a bride.
Run! my heart said. Run. But my legs didn’t have the strength.
Where would I go? Village women don’t run away . . . we have
nowhere to hide. In any case, Bhai [brother] would find me. The
village would shame me.
I don’t want what happened to Naheed in the neighboring
village to happen to me. I don’t want the village council to decide
my punishment. I don’t want to be gang-raped by ten men in a
hut. I can still hear Naheed’s screams. “Save me!” “Please, anyone
. . . help me!”
I was playing with my doll, Gudi. She was red, like the clay in
our village. I loved dressing her in gold wedding outfits. That’s
when you signed my life away. How could anyone decide the
fate of a five-year-old? Seven men, seven village elders, decided
what I was to do for the rest of my life. My uncle committed the
murder, and I would pay by marrying the victim’s uncle. Seven
men decided the fate of a five-year-old girl . . . me.
You promised your only daughter in marriage to the enemy.
He is fifty-five years old, Mother.
I know how to read and write, yet I have no control...