Early, forced marriages haunt Jordan's Syrian refugees

With no end in sight to Syria's conflict, some refugees in Jordan are offering their daughters for early marriage in the hope of securing them protection as they face growing economic pressure.
Syrian refugee Abu Mohammad says he reluctantly opted to marry off his teenage daughter to a rich 40-year-old Saudi man, hoping to give her a better life and ease his family's financial hardships.
"It was the last thing I wanted to do," Abu Mohammad, 50, told AFP outside his tent at the northern Zaatari refugee camp, home to more than 160,000 Syrians -- equal in size to what would be Jordan's fifth-largest city.

"This big prison we live in. It's unbearable," said Abu Mohammad.
The father of six said that his daughter's Saudi husband "promised to help us until the crisis ends and we go home," after the marriage three months ago.
"God knows when this is going to happen," he said.

Dominique Hyde, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)in Jordan, told AFP that it was not clear how widely spread early marriages were, but that there were signs it was taking place.
"Information gathered during assessments and monitoring visits do reveal incidents of forced and early marriage," she said.
According to Interior Minister Hussein Majali, the authorities have recorded 1,029 marriages between Jordanian men and Syrian women since refugees started to flee to the kingdom in 2011.

"Non-Jordanian men have married 331 Syrian women. These figures are within normal range," Majali said.
Jordan says it is hosting at least 500,000 Syrians. More than 70 percent of the refugees are women and children, according to the UN figures.
"Jordanians and other Arabs frequently come to ask me about Syrian refugee women to marry," said Fares Hosha, a 42-year-old former post office employee who now owns a shop selling household appliances.
"Two men from outside Zaatari recently asked the same question. One customer told them he has two daughters. The three left the shop together and I don't know what happened later."

Hosha thought that refugees accept such "urgent unconditional marriages because they fear the unknown and want to make sure their daughters are safe.