The whole family is crying. Khanim Latif’s 14-year-old sister was promised in marriage long ago and now the time has come for her to leave.
The experience of saying goodbye to her elder sister as she was sent off to her new husband stayed with Khanim Latif. Now, 30 years later, Latif is the director of Kurdistan-based women’s rights organization Asuda. Although her sister is a happy mother of educated children, Latif is still emotional when she talks about that farewell. ‘It created a very big pain in my heart,’ she says. ‘I thought: why is it my father who had the final word? It made me move in the direction of women’s rights.’
