JINHA

WAN - Rahime and Xezal, who live in Bahçesaray, are two women with same life story. “They forced me to marry when I was a child…’ said two women when they began to talk about their lives. The two women want to share their life story to the next generation.

Rahime Kaçak (78) and Xezal Keser'in (75) live in the Bahçesaray district of Van. Their life stories are similar to each other and they are worth to listen. First Rahime began to tell of her story. She expressed that she was forced to marry by her family when she was 14 years old.

Rahime told of her story with the following words: “I was small when they came and asked me from my family. I was forced to marry one of our relatives. They brought me to home where I would live. I learned that my husband’s mother, I mean my mother-in-law died the day I was brought to the home. They left me in another home. A week later, I went to the home I would live. I didn’t know how I can do household chores. I learned how to look after children and the animals and do household chores step by step.”

Rahime said she grew up with her children and continued, “In the past, we had gas lamps. I told tales to our children under the light of gas lamps. Now, all of them have mobile phones. We cannot see our children in the day and also in nights. Their lives are for phones and televisions.”

Rahime said she missed the life in the village despite all difficulties there and she believes the technology makes the people lazy. She said that, “Our works were hard and difficult because we lived in the village. Now there are several machines and the people do their works with these machines. They don’t understand the value and labor of their works. The life was difficult in the past but we were happy. We could stay on highlands without any problems. Now, we cannot stay there in the evenings. We, as women, want to have peace in our world immediately. We want our children to walk around on highlands and live on their lands as free.”

Then, Xezal Keser began to talk. She also said she was forced to marry by her family. She stated she didn’t do the same and allow her children marry whenever they want. Xezal noted that she thought the relationship between people broke down with the development in today's world. She said, “Our children even don’t want we tell tales to them. I was forced to marry when I was small. I had children when I was a child. I raised my children by telling tales to them. Today’s children don’t want listen to tales.”

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