What was going through your mind at the time?

"I was not expecting it. I didn’t want it. I said, ‘But where will I go? Because this is my home. Who will I find there? Who will I stay with? My friends, everybody will abandon me.’ When you leave, you stay with your husband’s family, alone. You can’t go out, and your friends don’t visit because now you are different. You are different and your friends are no longer your friends. Now, you stay with the mother of your husband. It is she who takes you around. And so that’s what I was thinking about that night.

"I thought, 'Tomorrow, I have to start over…it will be along time before I come back to my parent’s home, to their neighborhood, and maybe it will be with a child.'"

How old was the man that you were going to be married to?

"He was almost 45."

Were you afraid to be with him alone?

"Of course, because it is him who speaks, you do not speak. You bring something, you sit, you are there, you do as he tells you."

What did you do next?

"When I shared this news with my friends, one of my friends told me I should go talk to a woman who works with the ALVF [Association to Combat Violence Against Women]. But I didn’t want to. I said, ‘No, that will put me in conflict with my parents…'

"Finally, I went with my friend to this woman and explained my situation to her...A lady from ALVF went to my house — they didn’t say that it was me who told them. They went to convince my father, and asked him, 'She goes to school? What classes is she taking? What is her average? Is she smart?' They asked question after question after question and my father said, 'Why are you asking me all these questions? She's not continuing [to study], she’s going to get married.'

"And they said, 'But how is a little girl like this going to get married? Is she prepared?' The ALVF convinced my father by saying that they would take responsibility for me. I would go to school and he would not need to buy things for me, he would not need to pay for my schooling, he would not need to spend money to pay for school. And with the [future] husband, ALVF said they would reimburse him."