MONDAY, 28 July 2008

Al Rabih Ould Edum

(Translated from Arabic) 

She is the youngest divorcee on record at human rights organizations in Mauritania…Smart, and well-spoken, she knows how to express what had happened to her…

When we arrived at her parents' humble home, she was sitting with her peers… a group of girls, not a group of women… Upon first meeting her, it was hard to believe that this is the same girl who got married in Saudi Arabia, the girl who carries in her small purse a triple divorce certificate… It was hard to understand that behind her dreamy eyes, innocent face and slender form lay the tragedy of a child that had joined the divorcee club even before she had practiced fasting in the month of Ramadan, not once, not even for a try.

We hesitated for a while at the door of the house she sat in… Um El Kheyr would not let us enter immediately… She had wanted to cover her head, since we were, after all, "foreigners", as the child described.

Her journey had been long, and her experience deep… Her story was overwhelming… In just one year, this child's innocent soul, life-embracing and curious, had lost all innocence… Her papers had been forged… She had been coerced and tortured into marriage… She had been kidnapped, snatched away from her father who had been forced by adversity to grant his daughter’s custody over to his sister…as he searched for a sustaining livelihood… The girl had been through enough alienation, oppression and violation, that she had become dreamy-eyed, as though searching for an unknown haven to rest in.

She did not cry when detailing the hurtful story… More unnerving was that the wounds inflicted had robbed her from her childhood and left no place for reserve… The child recounted the rape in minute detail in the presence of her father, who was sorrow-riddled as he stroked his dignified white beard…saying that what had happened was a heinous crime committed against his daughter…confirming that he stood by her right.

"Um El Kheyr" is ten years old… Her father, Sayed Muhammad Ould EL Tijani, 42, is a travelling salesman… He says about the experience: "Last year, the mother of my daughter passed away… It was then that I decided to take her to the eastern states, to my sister in Nouakchott, the capital, so that she would supervise her education and upbringing…

But my sister Maymuna, he adds, had a different point of view. She took the girl to Saudi Arabia without my knowing it… to where her son and daughter lived. She took the child along with her daughter whom a Saudi had married and asked for her… So, there, in Saudi Arabia, was my little child, living with my sister's son, and my sister's daughter and her husband. The man would often take his new wife to a hotel, spending there most of the time, and my little child, who was not a day older than ten, would be left alone with her 25-year-old cousin… One day, the young man found himself alone with my sleeping daughter… He raped her, and there was no one to keep him from committing this evil act…"

Um El Kheyr interjects saying: "My cousin "Abd El Lateef" raped me in Saudi Arabia when we were all alone in the house… We would never usually be in the same room, but my married cousin [his sister] was not around… Afterwards, I tried to call my father, but I couldn't."

According to her father, he had received a call in Nouakchott from the father of the young man who had raped the child, telling him that he wanted them married… Um El Kheyr's father recalls: "I wasn't aware then about the rape…and I had actually agreed to the marriage, but I didn't believe that he meant then and there, I had thought that he wanted them promised to each other… I told him that the procuration should be in the hands of an honest person. He promised to contact two of my cousins in whom I trusted, for me to vest them the authority of overseeing my daughter's marriage at the time they see that she has become eligible to do so… When he was hours late to call me back, I contacted him that very same evening… I asked him what had happened concerning our conversation, and he said that what we had talked about was done and over with, that the marriage was contracted… I yelled at him, asking him who had given him permission to marry my daughter to his son, and where were the people whom we had agreed would be granted the authority over my daughter… He hung up on me, and since then he would not take my calls, and would arrange to be in Nouakchott only when I am in the central states."

As for the child, she comments the rape and marriage that had happened successively, saying: "After my cousin raped me, he told me that he had done that because he would marry me… So, I told him, and I told everyone, that I will not get married, that I did not want to get married, that I did not want to get married to that person in particular… But my opinion did not matter at all."

According to data from the "Mauritanian Housewives' League", the groom returned to the country with his young bride, who still played with children and loved candy… and had a hard time dealing with all that had happened… Her father was not contacted to tell him the news, and she did not know that he was in the capital where she had arrived, but thought that he was roaming the central states, trading as usual… In a matter of days, he found out, and his sons-in-law visited him, accompanied by the child… This visit only lasted ten minutes, during which the father asked his daughter why she had not called to say that she was coming… She told him that she did not know that he was in the capital, and that she did not have a phone to call him… So, he gave her one that he owned, and told her to call him often… He said that he had done it because he did not want to get into a fight with a young man of twenty-five, that he blamed his brother-in-law for what had befallen his daughter… and that with him alone, would he discuss the matter.

The child's husband would not talk to us, since, according to him, he saw no need to… But the divorce certificate he sent one day after a call made by her father, reveal part of his perspective on the subject… The certificate stated: "In the name of Allah, the all Merciful the all Compassionate and His prophet, peace be upon him. This is a letter of divorce…

I, Mr. "Abd El Lateef son of…" hereby bear witness in front of Allah, His prophet, and those who believe in Him, that I have divorced Um EL Kheyr, daughter of Sayed Muhammad, a triple divorce, due to the bad company of her parents, and the hypocrisy of their treatment, as Allah is witness to my words… Signed by the husband… Date: 14 March 2008."

The girl's father told Sahara Media that the scars due to torture were evident of his daughter's back, as she was, allegedly, whipped by the husband and his brother.

"My husband tortured me with a whip, after my uncle came to advise him against mistreating me and my father, and told him that keeping me from contacting my father was unacceptable… He and his brother threatened my uncle with a knife… They tortured me and humiliated my father."

The Child Hamza: My Brother Hung me on the Ceiling…

And Branded my Body with Searing Metal…

(Translated from Arabic)

Thursday, 31 JULY 2008

Al Rabih Ould Edum - Nouakchott

He is ten years old… A child like all other children in the world… He has the right to play, to have fun, go to school, and to learn… He has the right to learn new languages and go to parks… But as fate would have it, another life awaited him… a life that was anything but what it should have been.

This child who had dropped out of school some time ago… is caught between those people living around him and those who have a negative influence on the quality of his life.

His name is "Hamza Ould Kaynu", he was born in 1998. His mother, Aysha daughter of EL Mukhtar, 35, is a travelling ice-cream saleswoman… and his father, Kaynu Ould Amaran, 60, a porter… Hamza's family lives in the capital Nouakchott.

His elderly father lives on the sidelines… He does not understand modern times at all… He does not even hold an ID… His poor mother dreams of a brilliant future for her son, but all she can offer is what little money she makes and that barely covers the daily expenses of feeding her family. Life had been harsh, and she had been compelled to sell the cold drinks "Bisam"… His older half brothers are in no way role models for him; one had died serving time in jail, and the other has just been released… His two sisters are married, toiling through life with their prince charming.

Life had not been kind to three other brothers; it had dealt them poverty, crises, sickness and inadequate living conditions… They had passed away, and death seemed more merciful than carrying on in this losing struggle for decent living.

He has had a rough life, this shy young fellow… It would stir your emotions to see him walking barefoot in the streets of the capital.

His father had two children before marrying his mother… According to the mother, he had not raised them properly… So, they had grown up on the street, and acquired a violent and delinquent way of life…

His new wife gave birth to two girls, who in turn got married and moved out from the family home… She also gave him two sons, Muhammad, 11… and Hamza, 10.

Hamza's two brothers were jailed for committing crimes… One had died serving time last year (2007)… The other survived and was released, only to be interned again after two months… promising to change his life for the better… and swearing that he repented.

After a while, "Daoud" asked his step-mother to leave the two children in his custody, so he would teach them a trade that would do them good in this life and in the hereafter… He took them with him to where he lived, and got them started in car repair… The mother did not object to her sons going into this line of business, even though she had wanted them to go to school, she was illiterate and had wanted her sons to get and education.

Hamza was opposed to working in a garage… and told his brother firmly that he will not go into this business… That earned him punishment, in the eyes of his elder brother, and this punishment almost cost him his life… His brother had tortured him until he was on the brink of death.

His mother presented the case to the Prosecutor General at the Palace of Justice in the capital Nouakchott… She filed a complaint to the police… She contacted the media to draw people's attention to her struggle.

Today, Hamza's mother is with her sister… She cannot afford the 1500 ouguiya (USD 7) needed to get her son examined, and find out if his bones are broken or fractured… She cannot even afford the taxi fare… to travel… Her last few ouguiyas were spent on medicine for the child… She is now caught in a vicious circle… But she has faith in Allah; He does not forget those who worship Him.

Her husband stood by his son, she confirms… He told her that he was her son too even if she had not given birth to him… that filing a complaint against him was unacceptable… To this she answered that evil should not be harbored against others, the truth should be declared in public, and those with just claim should defend their right… He got angry with her… They have not reconciled yet.

"A month ago, my brother "Daoud Ould Kaynu" took me away from my mother to a garage owner in "Ksar" named "Obeid" to teach me to become a mechanic, but I would often skip going to work, so he started hitting me because of that… But I told him that I did not want to become a mechanic and that I will return to the "mahzara" (Quranic School)... So, he finally accepted to do as I asked.

The very same day he took me to the "Mina" market to buy some food items and carry them to the house of his "nephew", but I did not wait for him… I went to my mother's house is "Casablanca". When he returned to his house, he took me by the hand and led me to a remote place next to pole 6 in the "Mendez" neighborhood (a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Nouakchott). He made me go inside a dark house and he closed to door. He went in after me carrying some rope. He then gagged me, took some charcoal and started a fire. He placed a nail in it and waited for it to become red hot, and started searing me, all over my body."

The child, who seemed shaken by the memories of physical and psychological torture, added:

"No one heard me screaming, because he had gagged me. As I was about to lose consciousness, he took some rope and he tied it around my hands and feet, and hung me on a beam in the ceiling of the house. He took a whip and beat me repeatedly. He left me a whole day in that place. Then in the evening, he untied me and ordered me to go to the "Souk Al Maghreb" to fix my brother's bicycle. I took the opportunity to go to my mother's house. I told her the story and showed her the scars of torture on my body… She cried and cried because of what had happened to me… Around the time of Evening Prayer, he came to my mother and told her that he was taking me away with him… She refused… He tried to snatch me away from her, but after some neighbors appeared he left our house. My mother reported the incident to the police… I am terrified; I expect to be tortured again by my brother…"