COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH ¨C Begum, a Rohingya refugee, is relieved she married off one of her seven daughters before funding cuts closed her school and thousands of others in Bangladesh¡¯s cramped refugee camps, affecting nearly half a million children.
The daughter, Begum¡¯s second child, was 16.
¡°Without school, girls sit idle. People start talking,¡± said Begum, 35, as her youngest, a toddler, tugged at her headscarf and four other daughters huddled nearby in their bamboo shelter in one of the camps in Cox¡¯s Bazar. ¡°I was afraid. Marriage was the only option. I just pray her husband lets her study.¡±
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.