In this episode of Minutes With… from LADbible TV, forced marriage survivor Rubie Marie discusses how she was forced into marriage at the age of 15 to a man twice her age.
Rubie recalls her childhood when her older sister left the family to run off with a boyfriend, and it brought a great amount of shame on her family. It was then that her father announced that the family was going to Bangladesh, where her parents were originally from.
What Rubie came to realize, though, was that this wasn’t just to be with extended family or for a change of pace. Her father was looking for a suitable man for his teenage daughter to marry to help save the family name.
She remembers the moment her mother pointed out her future husband for the first time outside the family home.
“That’s the guy that you’re going to be getting married to,” Rubie recalls. “It was a bit crazy and I couldn’t understand it.”
Rubie also remembers trying to wrap her mind around what was happening to her and just feeling a sense of numbness along with utter outrage. She didn’t even have a chance to speak to the man she was going to be married to prior to the wedding because, she believes, her parents were afraid she would say something to him that would possibly disrupt the process.
In the moments leading up to the wedding, Rubie remembers that she felt very out of place and awkward as she sat by herself and could hear all of the festivities happening around her.
“I’m just [sitting] there in my room,” she says, “thinking, well, I’m just this little ‘China doll’ that’s been all pampered up and is going to get married to this stranger.”
What was life like for Rubie after the wedding? To hear the impactful details of her forced wedding story, watch the video.
