MARIRA
A STORY TO TELL
Her dreams sometimes were larger than the size of her village and smaller than that city nearby. Joy is born in the womb of pain...hope is born in the womb of suffering.
“When I put my head on my pillow, I always imagined myself in a graduation gown rather than in a wedding dress…. When I got married at the age of 16 I wanted to hold both love and future together, but I discovered that love deceived me, and I was underpowered by my own hands. Being divorced at the age of 18 with two beautiful daughters…my optimistic heart keeps telling me that the coming days are bright and beautiful, God willing .... my determination to go back to my school is much greater than the traumas I had in my short-lived life, and I will be able to achieve my goals because I want THAT….” Marira a young Syrian girl
How ugly is war, when humanity and childhood are stolen, and women become an instrument of warfare, as they face rape, harassment, abuse, sale, insult, or maybe all of this together?
What does it mean to be a woman in the time of a brutal war, how women feel, behave, and protect themselves?
This Statment piece would be a strong voice to the voiceless. Marira’s story does not only represent her suffering and pain it also represents all Syrian women who have gone through the same experiences.
The dress has been made by a tent distributed by UNHCR for Syrian refugees in Jordan. The roses on the tent made by Syrian women living in Zaatari, in different shades of red. Each shade represents a specific age group. Every thread has a story to tell.
SOURCES
-
Care, To Protect Her Honour: Child Marriage in Emergencies – The Fatal Confusion Between Protecting Girls and Sexual Violence, 2015 along with online reports such as: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/24-of-syrian-refugee-girls-in-lebanon-forced-to-marry-before-18-un_us_561eb44be4b0c5a1ce61c285; https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/11/iraq-forced-marriage-conversion-yezidis