Bangladeshi youth activism.
A group of kids banded together to prevent their 13 year old classmate from getting married.
Around 50 pupils in the town of Satkhira took to the streets to demand that Habiba Sultana's wedding be called off, they say. Pupils even submitted a petition to police urging them to take action. Police summoned Habiba's father and ordered him to stop the girl's marriage, which they said was illegal. Police say that Habiba, a student of Abdul Karim Girls' High School, did not agree when her poverty-stricken father arranged for her to marry a 23-year-old neighbour. Police say that she was too frightened to protest. When she told her friends about the impending wedding, they rallied round and urged her not to go ahead.
Word.
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Kickass!
Wonderful!
Nitpick, though: "getting married" implies agency on her own behalf, and is misleading when describing someone forced into marriage. When I first read it I thought they were preventing her from doing something she wanted to do.
Awesome! I hope the wedding was canceled and I hope she was able to get away from that jerk father.
There is hope in the world....
Now that is cool.
Now that is cool.
Now that is cool.
Now, that's what I'm talking about!! These kids should get the Nobel Peace Prize Nomination this year. They are true heroes.
I'm also curious as the why the father felt that arranging his daughter's marriage was the only way to get out of poverty? Is there no work where they live? No assistance of any kind?
I want to be happy, but... what happens to her now? What's going to happen to all of them, after humiliating an adult in the community internationally?
"I want to be happy, but... what happens to her now? What's going to happen to all of them, after humiliating an adult in the community internationally?"
Didn't they get adults (the police!) on their side?
"Nitpick, though: 'getting married' implies agency on her own behalf, and is misleading when describing someone forced into marriage."
Good point. What almost happened to her was "getting married off."
This is very inspiring -- kids almost always know better... but prairielily is right, what happens to her now? Mina reminds us That the cops rallied to her side, but it's unlikely that will last. What about the tyranny of her father?
This is very inspiring -- kids almost always know better... but prairielily is right, what happens to her now? Mina reminds us That the cops rallied to her side, but it's unlikely that will last. What about the tyranny of her father? And their (presumably continuing) continuing poverty?