{"id":8278,"date":"2017-08-11T17:25:47","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=8278"},"modified":"2017-08-11T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:27:08","slug":"how-afghan-rapper-sonita-alizadehs-song-brides-for-sale-changed-her-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2017\/08\/how-afghan-rapper-sonita-alizadehs-song-brides-for-sale-changed-her-fate\/","title":{"rendered":"How Afghan Rapper Sonita Alizadeh’s Song ‘Brides for Sale’ Changed Her Fate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n

Advocating against the practice of forced marriage, this young woman uses music to spread her message<\/p>\n

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When her family was considering selling Sonita Alizadeh into marriage to pay for her brother’s wedding, she wrote the song “Brides for Sale” in protest.Greg Kahn for Rolling Stone<\/p><\/div>\n

25 Under 25<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Sonita Alizadeh got into rap music around the same time a lot of kids do. She was 14 or 15, in a karate studio in Iran when she was hooked by her first Eminem song. She couldn’t understand the words \u2013 she grew up speaking Dari in western Afghanistan before her family fled the war \u2013 but she liked the way it sounded. Something about the beat and the urgency in his voice resonated with her years before she ever saw the movie\u00a08 Mile<\/i>\u00a0or recognized the similarities between her own story and the rapper in the film’s. “There was no giving up. Trying and trying. That’s what I’m all about,’ Sonita tells\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/i>\u00a0through a translator. At the time, she only knew she wanted to sing songs like that.<\/p>\n

She was living alone in Tehran, cleaning the karate studio in exchange for lessons. Her family \u2013 she’s the youngest of eight \u2013 had returned to Afghanistan where her mother was preparing for her brother’s wedding. Preparation included raising money to purchase the bride and, to do it, her family was considering selling Sonita into marriage first. She wrote the song “Brides for Sale” in protest. “Let me whisper, so no one hears that I speak of selling girls,” she rasps in a low voice at the start of the track. “My voice shouldn’t be heard since it’s against Sharia. Women must remain silent; this is our tradition.”<\/p>\n

Sonita posted a stark music video to YouTube \u2013 made by Iranian filmmaker Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami who was shooting a documentary about her life \u2013 and it went viral. “I received a great response from the world. I was able to connect with other girls experiencing the same issues,” she says. “It happens everywhere \u2013 every two seconds, one girl is married [off] under the age of 18.” The figure comes from the World Bank, and she knows it by heart because today, Sonita is a staunch advocate for ending child marriage. In between classes and exams and college applications \u2013 she lives in the U.S., where she is a senior in high school \u2013 she takes every opportunity to speak out about the issue.<\/p>\n