'I feel trapped': Scores of underage Rohingya girls forced into abusive marriages in Malaysia

autotldr Bot , 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

---

In desperation, a neighbor found a man in Malaysia who would pay the 18,000 ringgit ($3,800) fee for the girl’s passage and — after she married him — send money to her parents and three little siblings for food.

These unwanted marriages are the latest atrocity bestowed upon Rohingya girls: from childhoods marred by violence to attacks where security forces systematically raped them to years of hunger in Bangladesh’s squalid refugee camps.

The food rations weren’t enough to sustain them, and Begum couldn’t afford the traditional dowry that Rohingya brides’ parents are expected to pay grooms in the camps, typically thousands of dollars.

Begum sits now amid the misery and the muck of the camps as the stench from a nearby latrine wafts by, wishing she could hear her children call her “mother” one more time.

A Rohingya women’s advocate, who confirmed M’s account to the AP, heard about the situation and intervened, telling the girl’s husband that his exhausted bride needed time to recover from her journey.

In her spartan bedroom, where her pink cellphone with its heart decals and delicate ribbon is the lone glimmer of girlish joy, she wonders out loud why this man hurts her.

---

The original article contains 3,115 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 94%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!