美国国家公共电台 NPR The Lament Of The Boko Haram 'Brides'

 

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Northeastern Nigeria now where the Boko Haram terror network has killed 20,000 people, driven millions from their homes and abducted¹ thousands. Adults and children who survived the eight-year insurgency² are beginning to tell their tails. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton has the story of two young women.

OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE³: Salamatu Umar is 18, a young 18, with a tiny little voice. Umar cradles her 1-year-old son, Usman. She seems like a child herself.

SALAMATU UMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: Umar's son was born out of a forced marriage to a Boko Haram fighter. The teen, a native of Damboa in Nigeria's northeast, recounts her hell at the hands of Boko Haram after her town was overrun by the insurgents⁴ in 2014. She was 16 then.

UMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: Umar was 1 of 6 girls abducted by extremist fighters and herded⁵ into the bush. Then, she says, "our Koranic religious teacher told us the pride of a woman is to be given in marriage. So he handed all six of us to Boko Haram insurgents." "That's how I came to marry Usman Abubakar," says Umar.

UMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: "But I don't consider him my husband because in our tradition, your parents and family have to witness a marriage and give their blessing," says Umar. "You can't just be given out to somebody you don't know. My parents were not there. It's unimaginable to think that girls are abducted and then married off. No, that's not right," she tells me.

UMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: Then Umar has second thoughts. "I suppose it is a marriage of sorts because I have a baby now, but that doesn't make it a proper marriage," she says. She looks down at her baby boy and smiles at Usman. That's now.

The abducted teen mother describes an arduous⁶ life in the Sambisa Forest. That's Boko Haram's hideout where the extremist group is said to have driven thousands of people its fighters kidnapped, including the Chibok schoolgirls. Umar cooked and cleaned house for many people apart from her husband who, she says, she did not love because she was forced to marry him. But he was a good man, though misguided, she says. And she forgives him.

UMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: "He told me joining Boko Haram meant a direct route to heaven," says Umar, "so anybody living with them in the forest would surely go to paradise, so come and join them." Umar escaped from captivity⁷ with another teen bride after they hatched a plan to run away while collecting firewood for cooking.

She says, "I have lost so much. I've lost my virginity. I've lost my friends. I missed my parents and family. And which man will marry a girl who was once with Boko Haram, albeit⁸ against her will?" she asks. "I have been cheated, and I will never forget what I've been through." Then there's the name calling.

UMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: "People call me Boko Haram wife to my face," says Umar. "They say I am the wife of a killer⁹. So how can I be afraid of Boko Haram? They say my son is a Boko Haram baby. I used to feel it would be better to be dead then face all this," she says. "I'm getting over it now, but I still worry. I'm always happy when I see my child," she says, "but deep down, deep inside, I'm depressed¹⁰ and grappling with stigma¹¹ and marginalization."

HAUWA MUSA MAGAJI: A lot of stigma, so it is a big challenge for us. These girls have no fault. We are talking about a girl that has been abducted, impregnated.

QUIST-ARCTON: Psychosocial counselor¹² Hauwa Musa Magaji works alongside UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. Magaji says cases like Salamatu Umar's are legion. Abducted girls and young women held in captivity by Boko Haram and forced to marry fighters. Many, she says, become pregnant and have children with these husbands. Magaji mentions another case.

MAGAJI: She was sold out as a slave doing all the household work, including the husband, the wife, the children. She was doing all the cooking. And she said the master of the house would also go to bed with her. She is not spared because she's a slave. And if she refused, it is the beating of her life that she will receive. So you can imagine this type of night. It was a hell.

QUIST-ARCTON: Magaji is describing the case of 20-year-old Esther Bitrus.

ESTHER BITRUS: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: Bitrus, who's Christian¹³, says she was sold for money by one Boko Haram commander. Ultimately, she was married off to another commander. Before that, it was a life of drudgery¹⁴ for a year and three months, remembers Bitrus, doing all the work in a Muslim household, including wives who, she says, did nothing except accuse her, their slave, of sleeping with their husband.

BITRUS: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: Bitrus' problems were compounded, she says, when one wife caught her kneeling in Christian worship, saying prayers and fasting in desperation at her situation. "I was beaten," says Bitrus, "and my life was threatened."

BITRUS: (Foreign language spoken).

QUIST-ARCTON: Seven months pregnant, Bitrus ended up a young widow when her new husband was killed by a rival Boko Haram faction¹⁵. Her baby daughter, Rebecca, was born after Bitrus and other wives were rescued by the Nigerian military. Now she is free. Bitrus wants to pick up where she left off at high school, reunite with her parents who are displaced across Nigeria's border in Cameroon and raise baby Rebecca. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Maiduguri.

(SOUNDBITE OF ACROMUSICAL'S "BERIMBAU TRIO, NO. 1 'HARMONIA'")

1 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

2 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

5 herded   

群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动

参考例句：

• He herded up his goats. 他把山羊赶拢在一起。
• They herded into the corner. 他们往角落里聚集。

6 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

7 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

8 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

9 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

10 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

11 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

12 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

13 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

14 drudgery   

n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作

参考例句：

• People want to get away from the drudgery of their everyday lives.人们想摆脱日常生活中单调乏味的工作。
• He spent his life in pointlessly tiresome drudgery.他的一生都在做毫无意义的烦人的苦差事。

15 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。