No love story, as coronavirus woes drive some ethnic minority families in Hong Kong to marry off teen girls
- Girls as young as 14 taken out of school, made to marry cousins in Pakistan, social workers say
- Reports of more forced marriages as poor South Asian families face pandemic hardship
Late one night in June, social worker Yu Miu-po received a text message from a 16-year-old girl who left Hong Kong for Pakistan in March with her parents and siblings, when Covid-19 infections were severe.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, she complained that her father was forcing her and her 14-year-old sister to get married and had picked two of his nephews as their bridegrooms.
She said she did not want to marry someone three years older, whom she barely knew, but had no choice.
“They think I’m too spoiled because I was born in Hong Kong and grew up there,” she said in one message.
I’m traumatised. I’ve given up. We can’t change it, it’s our fate
Confined at home, she said her resistance led to quarrels with her father and even physical abuse.
“I’m traumatised. I’ve given up,” she said, as the family went ahead with marriage preparations for both girls. “We can’t change it, it’s our fate.”