{"id":28171,"date":"2019-12-30T04:09:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T04:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=28171"},"modified":"2019-12-30T04:09:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T04:09:43","slug":"arranged-marriage-secures-a-ba-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/arranged-marriage-secures-a-ba-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant fleeing an arranged marriage secures a Bachelor degree 9 years after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilafruz “Dilia” Samadova, who fled an arranged marriage from Tajikistan, a Central Asian country at the age of 21, recently completed a bachelor\u2019s degree program in early childhood education.<\/strong>
\nSamadova who’s currently 30, was able to escape the arranged marriage with help from friends and the United States embassy, she was able to secure an American work visa while seeking asylum.
\nAccording to Dilia, she met her husband on her wedding day, and with help from friends, was able to escape Samadova, secure a divorce and acquire an American work visa before being granted asylum<\/a>.<\/strong>
\nShe further noted that a group of Catholics in Ohio, including several in Stark County, have helped her to rebuild her life and assist her during the period she attended Walsh University.
\nSamadova, currently 30 years of age, recently graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree and noted she intends to work with children as an intervention specialist.<\/strong>
\nIn addition to school, Samadova works two jobs, one as a teacher\u2019s assistant at Our Lady of Peace Catholic School in Canton. At the same time, she is preparing for graduate school at Walsh University.<\/p>\n

Dilia\u2019s early days in the US<\/h2>\n

Dilia grew up in a Muslim household in Tajikistan but converted to Catholic religion after fleeing to Ohio in 2011. Her religion is among the reasons she says she could never return to her home country.<\/strong>
\nAccording to her, Tajikistan is a very patriarchal country. Her mother, and four sisters, all live the same way, with no rights. A girl child was not allowed to go to college, but she always wanted to go to school.
\nShe also noted that her arranged marriage was done when she was 15, but it got abusive, physically and emotionally, which pushed her to flee.
\nSamadova noted on her to the US she could not speak English which made things a bit difficult. But when she moved to Ohio, she got a job as a hotel housekeeper.<\/strong>
\nAccording to her:<\/p>\n

The only English I knew was a pillowcase, blanket. I learned by myself. I bought an iPhone and listened to TV.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She soon took a second job, cleaning a house for an Italian immigrant named Mamie Kolar.
\nKolar a Catholic helped her studied the religion for two years before she decided to become a Catholic. Kolar died in 2013, but her son and daughter-in-law continued to help Samadova.
\nThey urged her to attend Terra State Community College in the Ohio town of Fremont. She completed a two-year study program in early childhood education and from there furthered the remaining of her studies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arranged marriage Tajikistan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Arranged marriage is a common phenomenon<\/a> in Tajikistan. In rural areas, marriage and wedding tend to follow traditional customs, many marriages are arranged, and traditional wedding ceremonies and celebrations are held.<\/strong>
\nCouples usually move in with the groom\u2019s family until they get a house of their own. While in urban areas, more Soviet-Russian style marriage and wedding customs are present.
\nCouples often marry in a civil ceremony and have little or no say in their choice of an arranged marriage partner.<\/strong>
\nThe courtship, engagement and wedding process among Tajiks is even more complicated, with methods of choosing the spouse, courtship, proposal, engagement and many other processes left in the hands of the parents.
\nFeatured Image from: CantonRep<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilafruz “Dilia” Samadova, who fled an arranged marriage from Tajikistan, a Central Asian country at the age of 21, recently completed a bachelor\u2019s degree program in early childhood education. Samadova who’s currently 30, was able to escape the arranged marriage with help from friends and the United States embassy, she was able to secure an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":28172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}