"It's illegal to see a Muslim woman on her honeymoon in Eritrea so we went to meet her in secret. We planned to kidnap her."
I was born in 1954, in Udi Ugni, Eritrea. My hobbies are art (drawing) photography. I am keen to study medicine in order to save lives. I worked as an Anaesthetist in Eritrea and now I want to work as a nurse.
I wanted to tell you this story because of two reasons. First the English women are so free and well cultured, especially in Politics. I want all Eritean women to be like that. So when English women hear this story, they might help Eritean women. Secondly, it is the story about my struggle for freedom. I have found the Inside Lives experience so hard, even though I have got people who can help me all the way through. It made me very happy.
She was born on the coast of the Red Sea in a village called Darselam, 20 km from Massawa, the port of Eritrea. She was a very beautiful lady: tall, slim, with long black hair. She was charming and sociable. She was 15 years old and her name was Zula Mussa. Always early in the morning when the sun starts to rise Zula was coming from the stream bringing water and riding on a donkey, singing a song. While the sea was calm and the people of the village still asleep, she was singing and at night she would sing and play her drums in the woods with the other young people of the village. Me and my friends--we all loved Zula. She was special. It was November 1980, summer in the Red Sea planes, and she went to spend the vacation in Massawa, as she did every year. But this year she didn't come back. When we asked her father, he said that Zula had got married to a man called Hasen Edris. Hasen Edris was a 75 year old man and Zula was his fourth wife. My friends and I decided to 'save' Zula. It's illegal to see a Muslim woman on her honeymoon in Eritrea so we went to meet her in secret. We planned to kidnap her. Zula refused to come away with us. She just gave us a warm glowing smile. She was pregnant. A year later, we learnt that Zula had run away from her husband.
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