Rubina Khatun, now 18, of Kalaiya-5, who hasn´t seen the groom and not gone to his house during the four years, has finally broken free of the marriage that she never accepted. "I was never happy after that marriage and I would weep every day," she said. [break]
"Though I stayed with my parents even after the marriage, I was always worried about how he looked like, and how was his house," she added. Khatun is relieved following the July 12 verdict by justice Bishnu Koirala on her complaint lodged on January 27 this year.
She had named her husband Majid Miya, his father Sarajul and her father Zakir as defendants in the case. "I was married at an early age but I couldn´t accept it as I grew up," she talked about her marriage to Miya of Kehuniya, Parsa on May 8, 2006.
Her lawyer Rajeshwar Tiwari was delighted after the historic verdict. "This decision, the first of its kind that I have seen, will go a long way in controlling child marriage in the Tarai," Tiwari claimed. Even the family that had married her four years ago is now glad following the verdict.
"We first tried to convince her not to annul the marriage. But now we are glad at her happiness," her mother Jaifan Khatun conceded. The mother of four daughters has vowed to not marry off her other children at an early age. "We will never repeat the mistake and marry the other children only after they mature," Jaifan vowed.
Rubina´s grandfather also expressed commitment to end the tradition. "We married her as per the age-old tradition. But we would not give continuity to it," he said. He claimed the practice has been helped largely by the fact that one has to pay more dowry to marry off a mature daughter.
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