Whatever Your Name Is

This post at The Shield of Achilles about honour killings reminded me of a young woman of Turkish descent I shortly met when I was about eighteen.

She came to our school class, introduced herself as a new member, and sat down somewhere. She was there the next day, too. After that, she didn't come anymore. After a few days I asked my teacher what the trouble was: was she ill? No, he said, she had come to our city in the first place because she was trying to escape from her family who wanted to marry her to a man they, rather than she, had chosen, and they were threatening violence. Now, it seemed, they had found out her new whereabouts, so she had to move on to some other place.

I don't remember her name. I don't think I ever actually talked to her. I hope she's fine.

Given that I never heard about her in the news, she probably is.