Stephen Enoch
Eight years after being forced into marriage as a teenager, 28-year-old Amina Zakari still struggles to overcome the trauma of years of domestic abuse and lost dreams.
Amina was just 18 years old when her extended family compelled her to marry a man she neither loved nor wanted.
What followed, she said, was a painful journey marked by physical violence, sexual abuse, and emotional torment.
According to Amina, she had been living with her extended family at Tsamiyar Boka section of Hotoro in Nassarawa LGA following the death of her mother. Life in that household, she said, was far from easy.
“I noticed that my aunt, Hafsat, often collected gifts, money, and even food items from Zaifa Yusuf, the man who would later become my husband.
“Whenever he visited, she would ask me to be pleasant to him, to smile and serve him food. At first, I didn’t think much of it,” Amina recounted.
However, she said things began to take a troubling turn when her aunt started pressuring her to marry the man.
“She kept insisting that he was a good man and that I should agree to marry him. I refused, but soon everyone in the house began to threaten me.
“They said if I didn’t accept, they would send me away.”
Feeling abandoned and without anyone to defend her, Amina said she eventually gave in.
“I had nowhere else to go. I felt trapped. So I agreed to the marriage even though my heart was against it.”
She described the wedding as a bleak affair.
“It was a small, quiet ceremony with no joy in it. Everyone around me seemed happy, but I felt empty inside,” she told Stallion Times.
A Marriage Turned Nightmare
According to Amina, the marriage quickly descended into violence.
“The man I was forced to marry turned violent. He would beat me over little things.
“If I cooked late, he beat me. If I spoke back, he beat me harder. I never had an opinion or say in the house,” she said.
When she was four months pregnant, she suffered a brutal beating that left her unconscious and caused the tragic loss of her unborn baby.
She recounted that the assault was so severe she could remember nothing until she regained consciousness in a hospital bed, surrounded by doctors and nurses struggling to stabilize her condition.
According to her, the incident marked one of the darkest moments of her life, a trauma she continues to live with years later.
“When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me I had lost the baby. That broke me. I cried all night and prayed for death,” she recounted.
Despite her pleas, Amina’s family refused to let her leave the marriage.
“My father and Aunt told me to go back, saying a woman must never leave her husband’s home. Even when I told them what he did, they said I must have provoked him,” she recalled.
Her only moment of joy, she said, came with the birth of her first child the following year.
The Breaking Point
The situation worsened when her husband attacked her for speaking on the phone with a childhood friend he disliked.
Covered in bruises, she fled to her father’s house, declaring she would rather die than return to her husband’s home.
“When he was contacted, my husband lied to my family that I had a spiritual problem and needed to be cleansed.
“He also claimed another man was trying to take me away,” she added.
When her relatives came to force her back, Amina attempted suicide by ingesting a poisonous substance.
Her brother’s quick intervention saved her life and ultimately ended the marriage.
“I was ready to die than go back. Eight years of abuse were hell for me. But I thank God that after that incident, I ran to the Human Rights Commission, and everything changed,” she said.
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Intervenes
The NHRC in Kano stepped in to rescue Amina and pursue justice.
Shehu Abdullahi, the NHRC Coordinator in Kano, confirmed that the agency handled the case and ensured that Amina’s marriage was dissolved through legal means.
“We took her husband to court, and the marriage was officially dissolved. The court also ordered him to provide child support.
“We intervened because remaining in that marriage could have cost her life. She had already attempted suicide once,” Abdullahi said.
Abdullahi added that the Commission, working with civil society partners, also secured employment for Amina, enabling her to rebuild her life and care for her child independently.
“She is now living freely, doing well for herself, and leading a meaningful life,” he said.
Forced Marriage: A Persistent Problem
Forced and early marriages remain widespread across northern Nigeria, despite increasing awareness and advocacy.
According to UNICEF, about 43 percent of girls in Nigeria are married before the age of 18, with the highest prevalence in the North-West region.
The Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs reported that over 60 percent of domestic violence cases recorded in 2024 were linked to forced or underage marriages.
Experts say poverty, cultural norms, and lack of education continue to drive the practice.
Hajiya Rabi Ibrahim, a gender advocate based in Kano, said forced marriage often traps young women in lifelong cycles of abuse.
“Many of these girls are too young to understand what marriage entails. They are married off to men much older, and when violence begins, they have nowhere to turn,” she said.
A New Start
Now living independently with her two-year-old child, Amina is gradually rebuilding her life after years of abuse.
Through the intervention of NHRC, her estranged husband has been compelled to provide regular child support, ensuring the welfare of their child.
Despite several attempts by Stallion Times to meet, Yusuf, her husband, Amina has firmly rejected any contact with him.
“I don’t want to have anything to do with him again; that chapter of my life is closed,” she said resolutely.
Amina said she now draws strength from her experiences and hopes that sharing her story will encourage other women enduring domestic violence to speak up and seek help.
“No woman deserves to live in fear.
“I want young girls to know they have a choice, that silence only deepens the pain, and that help truly exists,” she told Stallion Times.
Her case, according to Rabi Ibrahim, a gender rights advocate, highlights the urgent need for stronger enforcement of child protection and domestic violence laws in Nigeria.
“It also shows the importance of continuous psychosocial and economic support for survivors who are trying to rebuild their lives,” Ibrahim added.
GBV: “Break the silence. End Violence.”
