14 year old Maimuna Abdullahi escapes from abusive second marriage in Kaduna
Tuesday, 01 July 2014 09:33 NIGERIAN teenager Maimuna Abdullahi has
successfully escaped from her most recent marriage into which she was forced to
enter after her husband old enough to be her father paid a bride price of £120
despite being the girl just 14 years old.
Twice married off to elderly men,
Maimuna has managed to escape and is now learning how to design cloths at a special
school in Kaduna. After being sold into marriage by her parents, she was abused
by her new husband, who locked her away and forced hard labour on her. When she
ran home she was beaten, first by her father, then her husband and was summarily
divorced by her husband for daring to flee while still 14. Maimuna is one of
thousands across northern Nigeria with similar stories and shockingly, her
husband blames his beaten former bride for her ordeal, saying she was disobedient
and over- educated. Maimuna’s former husband, Muhammadu Saidu, blames her few
years of school for her disobedience. A handsome man of 28 who is obviously proud
of his ankle-high boots, he does not deny beating his wife. Mr Saidu said:
"She had too much ABCD. Too much ABCD." After fleeing her first
husband who locked her away for days at a time, Maimuna was whipped by her
family for daring to come home, then attacked by her furious husband as well.
Her battered face swelled so much that doctors feared her husband had
dislocated her jaw, while her back and arms bristled with welts from the
whipping her father gave her. Maimuna was gaunt from hunger, dressed in filthy
rags and barely a year after her wedding, she was divorced. Eventually, she was
rescued by Saadatu Aliyu, who has turned an old family home into a school for
divorced girls. Ms Aliyu's Tattalli Free School, which is funded by private donations,
caters for victims of child marriages and their offspring. Across the Muslim north,
where child marriage is often considered acceptable by Sha
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