Source: ET
JORDAN: With no end in sight to Syria’s conflict, some refugees in Jordan are offering their daughters for early marriage in the hope of securing them protection as they face growing economic pressure.
Syrian refugee Abu Mohammad says he reluctantly opted to marry off his teenage daughter to a rich 40 year old Saudi man, hoping to give her a better life and ease his family’s financial hardships.
“It was the last thing I wanted to do,” Abu Mohammad, 50, told AFP outside his tent at the northern Zaatari refugee camp, home to more than 160,000 Syrians — equal in size to what would be Jordan’s fifth-largest city.
The father of six said that his daughter’s Saudi husband “promised to help us until the crisis ends and we go home,” after the marriage three months ago.
“God knows when this is going to happen,” he said.
Dominique Hyde, representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan, told AFP that it was not clear how widely spread early marriages were, but that there were signs it was taking place.
“Information gathered during assessments and monitoring visits do reveal incidents of forced and early marriage,” she said.