She had already stored an effective henna cluster together with her family the brand new nights in advance of, resting patiently as her hands was basically decorated which have sensitive, brownish-black colored vines and you will activities. The following day, she went on beauty parlor to have this lady locks meticulously put up and you will festooned with ornaments.
After that, she was supposed right to the lady marriage in the home, in which a tiny selection of household members had been make getting months, cooking and you can talking and you will believe the brand new occasion. Perhaps the honeymoon was build: Aytan and her groom had entry to go away to possess Turkey the latest very overnight.
But all of a sudden, the new plans came to a halt once the police authorities entered brand new beauty parlor and you can informed Aytan the marriage is actually from. The reason? The marriage is actually unlawful.
“These people were ready to marry any kind of time time,” told you Ilgar Balakishiyev, the fresh deputy captain from police into the Ganja. “As soon as we spotted the newest welcomes, we had been advised this lady is underage, you to she is actually 13. We enjoy her inside the and you can told me that the matrimony is actually against legislation.”
Azerbaijani law stipulates that an early on lady must be 17 in buy so you’re able to lawfully get married; depending on the state analytics committee, an average of girls wait until they are 28 so you can get married. However, rules-enforcement authorities and you will legal rights professionals say exactly how many underage wedding parties are steadily rising when you look at the Azerbaijan, which includes brides who are only 12 entering create marriage ceremonies.
Critics state expanding impoverishment are one reason why getting the fresh trend. Aytan, who asked one to this lady genuine name not utilized, acquired permission away from the girl mother to help you get married because groom, a person in his 30s out-of a surrounding community, are prosperous and might promise the woman girl a secure upcoming.
“I’d hitched myself as i was 13,” Aytan’s mom told you. “I had a comfortable lifestyle up to the guy died. I am just ill, of course it said there is certainly you should not spend an effective dowry, I told you I would let her get married.”
Aytan looked distressed one to this lady relationship preparations had fallen through. A student at a region music college, she told you she enjoyed their knowledge however, you to definitely she had usually dreamed of becoming a bride-to-be and having hitched. The fact that none she nor the lady mommy got actually ever met the girl potential partner — together with merely spoken so you can him once or twice from the cell phone — didn’t apparently problems the girl. For the moment, not, the wedding is from.
One another mother and you can de loved ones getting reporting the wedding to your cops, claiming these were “jealous” of its chance. However, Aytan’s mom appears chastened, claiming she today knows her daughter are too-young.
Legal rights specialists such as Mehriban Zeynalova, the head from Temiz Dunya (Brush World), an NGO intent on ladies products, state underage ic ceremonies that offer more youthful brides no societal safety and set him or her susceptible to getting neglected, mistreated, otherwise ended up selling because of the the husbands.
S. State department described Azerbaijan due to the fact an active supply nation to possess trafficking, with many different local youngsters and you will women being sold for the sex thraldom on United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Russia, and you can Iran
“Without the proper lifetime sense, really boy brides are not able to cover their family existence,” she states. “The wedding easily drops aside, then problems arrive. The girls be simple targets for trafficking and you may prostitution.”
Trafficking is on the rise in Azerbaijan, an oils-steeped country which have a prosperous elite group but in which the most of the populace are still mired in impoverishment. Inside a 2010 statement, the newest U.
Inside days where child brides don’t fall sufferer so you can offense, the problems away from old-fashioned married life have a devastating impact for the adolescent female. Maleyka Alizade, who thoughts a local women’s cardiovascular system in the Ganja, states young girls try really and psychologically unprepared into the pressures out-of impact people and you may raising a family, have a tendency to with a partner who escort girl Chicago is ages earlier.
“Parents, with regard to personal profit, is forcing girls of 13, 14, 15 years of age to stop the amount and then have partnered,” she says. “Just how do a great thirteen-year-old woman end up being a pops? She’s a child herself. The baby will be little more than a doll model to help you the woman.”
However they say brand new rash departure having Turkey — also the simple fact that Aytan had received a beneficial physician’s certification confirming the girl virginity — and additionally raised suspicions you to definitely she could have been doomed to have a beneficial sex-trafficking band, even in the event zero fees had been leveled facing possibly this lady mommy or the previous bridegroom
Into the Ganja and you may someplace else, young brides continue to be a fascinating item, with many parents voluntarily extract the ladies children out-of-school to wed them out-of in the a get older after they might possibly be highly wanted. Islamic leadership have abetted this new pattern by giving spiritual wedding ceremonies getting underage brides — will to own charge of up to $600.
Many colleges — particularly in the country’s southern area, nearby the Iranian edging — have seen the exodus out-of all those female trying very early edova, the manager away from a school for the Mashtaga, a town beyond your capital Baku, claims of a lot grooms was wanting to come across brides with little to no training, exactly who they think might possibly be less likely to want to chafe beneath the confining role regarding spouse and you will mother — and therefore mothers function accordingly.
“Within our town, some one push their children so you can edova. “That frequently, moms and dads reduce kids off school when they are inside last amount, and end up being hitched of when they are simply a dozen, thirteen, fourteen.”
Into Ganja, Aytan is ready to return to lives as a beneficial schoolgirl. However, after the woman dreams of becoming a bride-to-be — and seemingly not aware to your you’ll be able to risks she is actually protected — the woman is unwilling to go back.