5 – Brides Were Routinely Kidnapped
Imagine if you were suddenly grabbed and kidnapped by strangers and forced to marry them? This was the fate of countless women in several countries around the world including China, Japan, and Ireland. While most societies rightly see bride kidnapping as a sex crime and not a legitimate form of marriage, it still occurs in certain locations such as amongst the Romani in Europe, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and several Central Asian nations such as Kyrgyzstan. It was practiced in dozens of countries around the world and even remained popular in China until the 1940s.
Bride kidnapping in China was occasionally seen as a groom’s last resort to avoid having to pay a bride price. Some scholars argue with this suggestion and believe bride kidnapping was an act of collusion between the bride’s parents and the groom to avoid having to get the consent of the woman herself. The practice of Qiangqin was common in rural China even though it was banned in Imperial China. Typically, the abductor would show up with up to 20 men. The group would grab the woman and the ‘groom’ would cut off the panties of the ‘bride’ with scissors. The victim would be carried to the man’s house for the marriage to get consummated.
There are patriarchal tribes in Central India that still practice bride kidnapping. In these cases, the groom will carry away the bride and get chased by villagers. If the couple isn’t found within a few hours, they are deemed to be married. While the Indian government strongly disapproves of the custom, it is powerless to prevent tribal communities from conducting such ‘ceremonies’. Bride Kidnapping is illegal in Japan and in 1959, a Japanese man was famously convicted of rape for carrying out the custom known as Ottoi-yomejo. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Disturbingly, bride kidnapping is still widely practiced in Kyrgyzstan. The former Soviet republic is now an Islamic nation with around 5.5 million residents. An incredible 25% of all marriages in the country are believed to include an element of bride kidnapping. In some cases, it involves a man and his friends borrowing a car to abduct a young woman and force her to be his bride. The victim is dragged to the male’s house and his mother and sisters force the kidnapped woman to wear a headscarf which is a symbolic gesture. In Kyrgyzstan, a woman agrees to a marriage when she wears the headscarf.