Import Me a Wife!
by The real story behind arranged marriages between Somali men living in the United States and very young desperate Somali girls in Africa. Modern day slavery rife in these arranged marriages shrouded in deception and misrepresentation.
On the other end of this spectrum, are the ‘importers’ of wives. Men who have found a shortcut around courting and even wooing a woman. They have the power and they are taking the short route for a myriad of reasons; the above story is just one of the many. The most popular however is how cheap it is to actually get and marry a girl from Somalia or whatever other place she is living in poverty stricken Africa. All expenses including travel will cost him somewhere less than USD10,000, this of course being on the higher side.
The men I was able to get some answers out of said, girls who are already in the U.S, do demand more money as bride price, are very expensive to maintain and will fleece a poor refugee working his heart out in the first world. But if you ask me they missed to mention that unlike their peers in Africa, these girls also know their rights and live in surroundings where their rights cannot be trampled upon.
The other popular reason for ‘importing’ wives is of course to practice polygamy. One wife in the diaspora, another or two back home; the second will obviously never set foot in the U.S, but continues to be convinced she will, one day.
It is almost understandable where poverty has raged and opportunities are few and far between, but it is hard to ignore that these girls are silently becoming modern day slaves sold at whim by greedy parents or worse they are willing to well themselves to the elusive hope.
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Post Commentbhaswati
On January 6, 2011 at 12:56 am
it is indeed very sad that women from many parts of the world are duped every day into this kind of marriages. good article
s j tubrazy
On January 6, 2011 at 2:10 pm
informative post.
Halima Salat
On January 6, 2011 at 4:28 pm
thanks for the comments keep them coming
LJ Spain
On January 9, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Very good read. Very sad.
elnavann
On February 16, 2011 at 5:36 pm
This is a very good article. I like the way you are doing your own research – makes this a very original piece of work
Dr Ali
On December 28, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Like this knee jerk lady the truth is distorted and the facts and the image of Somali proud people were tainted. Am Somali who live in Eastliegh for the last 20 years. I never seen the lies and deception of this idiot claim about Somali girls by this Halima.
May be she wrote out anger after her marriage fell into a part.
Halima, you are so cheap to sell lies.