Rand Jarallah, 19, is a psychology student at Birzeit University, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Adolescent Marriage: Crossroad or Status Quo?
It wasn't an option, murmured a thirty-two-year-old woman with a troubled face who wished to remain anonymous. I felt her emotions so strongly that I wished I had a chance to change her life. I was the oldest girl among my sisters, she said, my aunt came to my father wanting his consent for my marriage to her oldest son. My dad could not let her down -- his politeness resulted in my melancholy. She was married at sixteen. Deep down, I knew she wasn't the only one. Somewhere out there, even in my country, adolescent females suffer from similar situations.