“Some women were raped. We heard about this, but only those who are not married can talk about it… It is cheap to be married now. You are lucky if you find somebody for your daughter to marry. And the age of the girls is going down – they are very young now. The families are happy to get rid of their daughters, especially in a refugee camp, where there is no control over the girls. Girls are more difficult because you have to take care of their honor and they are more expensive.”
-M., a male refugee from Kenyu (Printed in this month’s Harpers)
“The reason we nowadays are accustomed to betroth our daughters even while they are minors is that our life in the diaspora is becoming harder; consequently, if a person is now in a financial position to give his daughter an adequate dowry, he is apprehensive lest after the lapse of some years he will be in no position to do so and his daughter will remain unwed forever.”
-Tosafot on Babylonian Talmud Qiddushin 41a