These last six months had been the worst moments in our entire lives. I could not sleep nor swallow anything. During all that time I was worried sick about my 13-year-old daughter, Tania.
Her father forcefully married her off one year ago. He did not even listen to a single word I said. He said we would never get a groom again like Helal. He said Helal has no bad habits; he is from a good family and our daughter will have a very happy life with him.
My husband sold our only land and cow and gave Helal a motorbike as a gift. Helal promised he would love Tania more than his own life.But after three months of the marriage, Helal’s family started to torture my daughter to give them a color television, wooden furniture and a freezer. Helal started behaving badly towards her and even physically tortured her several times.
They were only providing one meal a day to my daughter. She had to do all the household work alone. Sometimes they locked her outside of their house for a whole day and night.
We are poor labourers. We had no idea how to save our daughter. Where will we get that much money? We had nothing after paying for the motorcycle. We begged Helal’s family even by holding his mother’s legs several times. We said to her, “you also have a daughter. How could you be doing this to another daughter?” but they never listened. They threatened us that if we didn’t fulfil their demands, they would kill our daughter. But where would we get this money? My husband and I earn 600 taka a week.
We were afraid to go to the police because my daughter is a child. The police would put us in jail because of laws against child marriage.
Then we shared our problem with the head master of Tania’s school and he helped us get our daughter back. He got the help of our chairman and rescued my daughter from that jail.
For the first time in several months I am smiling. My husband promised me and the head teacher that he would never make this mistake again and we will continue our daughter’s education.
