Barbaric

The SST reports:

A RELUCTANT young New Zealand bride has allegedly been punched, abducted and held against her will by her mother to force her to honour her marriage vows and have sex with her groom.

That is rape, married or not.

The teenager’s family was given dowry of a large pig and expensive mats to marry her husband, who is understood to be almost twice her age.

Her mother and a man understood to be her stepfather have been charged with unlawfully detaining her over the course of two days, allegedly to force her to be the groom’s wife and to force her to have sex with him.

The girl, of Tongan descent, is understood to be about 17 years old, but the family cannot be named for legal reasons.

Bad enough to be traded like property, for a dowry, but I’d be pretty pissed off is all I was worth was a large pig and some mats.

The girl’s mother has also been charged with assaulting her on two separate occasions over the marriage matter. It is claimed that the mother punched her daughter with a closed fist, but the girl managed to deflect most of the blows.

Guess she hasn’t read Section 59.

A source close to the family said the girl did not want to marry the man, but an agreement was reached between the two families and she was obliged to honour it.

No she isn’t. Maybe in Tonga, but not in New Zealand.

On her wedding night last year she ran away to her boyfriend, understood to be the groom’s son.

Oh dear, that just makes it worse. Here’s a novel idea – let a 17 year old date whomever she wants, and marry whomever she wants once she is ready and wants to. Don’t treat a daughter as a chattel.

The Sunday Star-Times was told by a community source that when a young woman is married, it is customary for the family to inspect the sheets the day after the wedding to establish her virginity has been taken.

Good God – that was done 2,000 years ago also. Time to join the modern world. Plus it is a crap test. If a girl has ridden horses (for example) her hymen may well have gone even though she is a virgin.

It is understood the young bride ran away to avoid having sex with the man. Police were alerted to the case when she went to court to seek a restraining order against her mother.

Good on her. Thank God she knows her rights.