by GULAYIM MYRZAEVA
Zuhra M., age 25, is a beautiful woman with a great smile. Talking over this delicate issue she cannot meet my eyes and has a guilty look despite the fact there is nothing she should be ashamed of. Zuhra got married when she was 18, but her marriage lasted only for two days. “Uzbeks have their first night a day after the wedding. All day my husband was with his friends and I was at home at yuzochty [a ceremony after which the bride can unveil her face]. In the evening my husband and I went to our bedroom. Around ten women were sitting in a room next to our bedroom. Since my husband was too drunk he could not do anything. After one hour or so a woman started to knock at our door demanding the sheet. He opened and said to everyone that I am not a virgin. The next moment they kicked me out of the house and my parents came to pick me up,” says Zuhra sadly.
It is very hard for her to remember all of the humiliation she and her family had to go through. When Zuhra’s husband’s family demanded her family pay for the wedding expenses, Zuhra’s mother insisted on a medical check-up. She asked her ex-in-laws to select a gynecologist, and she took her daughter there. After the doctor proved Zuhra’s virginity to her ex-husband’s parents, they asked her to return.
“I could not live with people who made my family and me go through such humiliation. Now I am divorced – another stigma – and still a virgin,” shares Zuhra.
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