This Human Rights Activist Was a Child Bride — But She Won’t Let That Define Her
She survived a forced marriage and years of abuse, only to come out on top as a beacon of hope.
When Samra Zafar was 16 years old, her mother came into her room and told her she’d received a marriage proposal.
“I was doing my math homework,” Zafar, now 36, told Global Citizen. “I was just sitting at my desk, doing my homework.”
They lived in Ruwais, a small town in the United Arab Emirates. The man she would marry, she came to learn, was a family friend’s brother who lived in Canada. Her mom told her it was a good way for her to be able to get a university education and to be taken care of. It wasn’t up for debate — the plans would soon be set.
By 17, Zafar was married. Her official wedding was in Karachi, Pakistan, and afterwards, her husband went back to Canada to file the necessary paperwork while Zafar stayed behind. About a year later, he flew back again for a reception in Abu Dhabi.
By this time, Zafar had been married on paper for a year, but she barely knew her husband. They would speak on the phone occasionally and chat online, but he was still very much a stranger to her — a stranger who was 10 years older.
She moved to Canada within the week of her reception, and was pregnant within the month.
She was 18 and desperate to get her high school diploma.
At first, her husband was supportive of her finishing high school. A pregnant teen, she began taking courses through a local adult learning centre.
But when her in-laws came to Canada and they all moved into a house together, things took a turn. Zafar was no longer permitted to leave the house much on her own. Her husband became cold and the entire family looked down on her pursuing an education. The verbal abuse was steady, and the teenager was isolated.
Still, school kept her motivated.
60 Minutes defamation case: documents reveal escape of ‘child bride’
GOVERNMENT documents detailing how Australian consular officials helped a Sydney teenager escape from Syria where her family were trying to force her to marry have been presented in a defamation case against Nine’s 60 Minutes.
A 2006 case file on Nadia Tabbaa from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade details how they helped the 18-year-old escape under the nose of her family who kept her under strict surveillance by whisking her away when she was meant to be attending a religious class and smuggling her over the border to Jordan.
But her mother Pamela Tabbaa, who with her former husband Mouhammad Tabbaa is suing 60 Minutes over the story of Nadia’s dramatic escape, told the jury the Australian consular staff were tricked into helping the teenager escape when she was free to leave Syria whenever she wanted.
Mr and Mrs Tabbaa are suing Nine over the story which said they conspired to lure 13-year-old Nadia to the Middle East under the pretence of a holiday and then forced her to live in Syria with her paternal grandmother for five years. The Tabbaa’s claim the story has damaged their reputations by bringing them into ridicule and contempt.
In the DFAT documents dated August 9 2006 staff from the Australian Emergency Response Team in the Canadian Embassy in Damascus note that they have been contacted by Nadia Tabbaa who told them she was being prevented from leaving Syria by her father and uncles
“Nadia advised that she was brought to Syria under false pretences on a holiday at 13 and her movements in Syria are monitored,” the report states.
Nadia also reported that “her grandmother is trying to marry her off and her father has confiscated her passport.”