Runaway child bride

last updated 8 January 2015

Sibiu, Romania

The forced marriage of a 12-year-old girl in Romania this week has focused attention on the controversial practice just as Romania seeks to join the European Union. Ana Maria Cioaba ran crying from the church, but her father, the self-proclaimed king of a local Gypsy community, brought her back and made her marry a 15-year-old boy. That night the groom’s parents held up the traditional bloody sheet to prove that the marriage had been consummated. In Romania, the legal age of marriage is 15, but authorities often ignore child marriages among Gypsies. Emma Nicholson, a British member of the European Parliament, called on Romanian police to “move in immediately and remove [the girl] from harm.”