NINEVEH, Iraq \u2014 She set her small body on fire after pouring several liters of kerosene over herself and lighting a match. This is how she ended her life after her father refused to allow her to marry her lover and insisted she marry someone she did not know.<\/p>\n
Shahnaz, who was not yet 25 years old, died at a burn center in Nineveh in April 2010 after physicians failed to save her from the injuries that disfigured her entire body. She is now another number on the long list of tragic victims of\u00a0forced marriages<\/a>.\u00a0Kalnaz, Shahnaz\u2019s younger sister, described the incident to\u00a0Al-Monitor:<\/em>\u00a0\u201cIt was an ominous day, [but] we did not expect her to carry out this disastrous act.\u201d She added, \u201cFire devoured my sister\u2019s body while she screamed out against all those who were unjust to her.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision made by Layla, 27, was different. She acquiesced to a marriage that she was forced into by her family, to live a life that she described as a \u201csilent death,\u201d rather than a \u201cscandalous death,\u201d after her family refused to allow her to marry her university\u00a0classmate.<\/p>\n Layla wiped away her tears as she said, \u201cIt\u2019s possible that my father and brothers could have killed me to remove the stain on their honor, had they suspected that I was refusing to marry one of my cousins because of a relationship with my classmate, who they had not allowed me to marry.\u201d She added,\u00a0\u201cI had no other option.\u201d\u00a0The problem of\u00a0forced marriage<\/a>\u00a0is not limited to Layla and Shahnaz. Thousands of women in all parts of Iraq share the same problem in the patriarchal and tribal society. The freedom of women, in general, is limited and their love lives, if discovered by the family, can create a pretext for her murder.<\/p>\n