IDLIB (AA) - At the camps where Syrians escaping the war settled in, some girls aged 12 to 15 have something in common, when their peers play with toys they had to be a mother or a wife because they were child brides.
In the tent city near Atme, a village near Idlib, northern Syria there are child brides suffering homesickness on the one side and taking care of their babies and taking heavy responsibility on their tiny shoulders on the other side.
The residents of the tent city were surprised when they heard the female photojournalist of Anadolu Agency was a Turk and opened their homes and hearts to welcome her.
The girls between 12 and 15 years were surprised when they were confronted with questions about marriage and searched for answers with wide opened eyes.
Some of the girls told, "that is natural" but others said, "we had no choice" and that they got married with the decision of their fathers.
The child brides remembered, their fathers had no choice to say "no" if some married relative was a contender for the girls and that this is the tradition in Syria.
When the girls get older they become the second wife of their cousins, they told AA and added, they are "happy" to become the third or fifth wife in early years.
One of the young brides, who is 9 years old said that she married the man her father told her and that she even did not know how much money he paid for her. She explained in her own way, the only reason she lives for were her "children".
Reporting by Dilek Mermer
