Zeinabou Moussa is but a girl, flat-chested, soft-skinned and shy. Yet at just 16 she has seen more of marriage than she would like. Earlier this year, having been beaten and bullied into wedding a stranger, she took a stand. She fled her husband's home in Niger's southern province of Zinder no fewer than four times after the ceremony, only to be dragged back by unsympathetic parents. Then she made her wedding bed a battlefield. When her husband forced himself on her, she bit him where it would hurt most. "He fainted," she says wryly. "And I ran." The next day her husband, sore and sorry, took her before a traditional chief to demand a divorce. Her parents will not force her into marriage again.
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