The headlines “Pregnant woman found shot to death in Zarqa” (The Jordan Times, January 28, 2014) caught my eye and I proceeded to read the article.
Perhaps, technically, this 17-year-old was a woman, but I could not help comparing her to my 17-year-old granddaughter who is about to graduate from high school and enter college.
Not only was this young woman eight months pregnant, she was also the mother of another child. This means that she must have married at 14 or 15, an age when I would hardly consider one a “woman”.
I thought there were laws in Jordan preventing marriage of such young girls.
It is shocking that her life has ended while others her age are just beginning theirs.
My granddaughter is still just a schoolgirl, something that this poor unfortunate girl should have also been.
Karen Asfour,
Amman
