NAIROBI – Woineshet Zebene Negash was just thirteen in March 2001, when Aberew Jemma Negussie and a group of accomplices broke into her house late at night, carried her away and raped her.
After her teachers reported the incident to the police, Woineshet was rescued and her rapist was arrested. However, some weeks later, her story was to get even more complicated and distressing. Having been released by police on bail, Negussie abducted her again and hid her in his brother’s house. She was held there until she managed to escape more than a month later, but only after she was forced to scrawl her name on a piece of paper – a document which would later be used against her in court as a supposed “marriage contract”.
In parts of Ethiopia, abduction has been used to force a girl or woman into marriage for many years. The girl is commonly abducted by a group of men and then raped by the man who wants to marry her. He usually cannot afford her dowry or ‘bride price’. The next day, the elders from the man’s village “apologize” to the family of the girl and ask them to agree to the marriage. The family is forced to “consent” as a girl who has lost her virginity would be considered “tarnished goods”.