'Child bride' Ameena flies high again

The pip of a girl whose story made national headlines in 1991 after she was rescued by an Indian Airlines air-hostess from an older man, married a schoolteacher yesterday.

Ameena was only 11, when her poor and illiterate parents forcibly married her to the older man, an Arab. She was offloaded from the flight and a case registered against her father and the Arab national by police in New Delhi.

"I am happy I found a suitable match in schoolteacher Moham-med Abdul Majeed. By the grace of Allah, this wait for 13 long years seems to have borne fruit. No one was bothered about my fate all these years. My father died in 1994 and my mother had to look after my five sisters," she said.

Ameena, however, did take up hand embroidery work with financial assistance from the state government's Minorities Finance Corporation which gave her Rs10,000 as start up money.
Ameena spent the little money she saved to get two of her younger sisters married.

Her 'chamki work' was in demand in the local market, but the profits are small and the work too hard she said.

The head of the AP Mahila welfare society, Shaheen Afroz said here, "At first, she did not want to get married, but she agreed to after much persuasion. We want her to settle down. After all, how long can she stay unmarried, unable to forget the nightmare she underwent at the hands of that man."

Ameena also met some Muslim leaders along with Shaheen to seek financial assistance for her marriage.

Her mother promised her Rs10,000 and two tolas of gold. The welfare society was given a donation of Rs10,000 including Rs5,000 from Zahid Ali Khan, the editor of Siasat, an Urdu newspaper. Shaheen said she had spent Rs3,000 on clothes and hoped to receive more donations.

She also met the Wakf Board chairman Saleem as the board gives Rs5,000 to poor Muslim girls to meet their marriage expenses. Till last week, Ameena had only been able to collect Rs10,000.