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Kidnapped for life

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Because a man has decided that she will be his wife, a woman is abducted. In Svaneti, a remote region of Georgia situated in the Caucasus mountains near the Russian border, 1 woman in 3 is abducted. Before their forced marriage, they are sequestered in towers dating from the middle ages, cut off from their families. Some women manage to escape, though they will finish their lives as pariahs. The majority prefer to marry their abductors to avoid tarnishing their families reputations and to avoid disputes between clans. Kingdom of criminals and pillagers at the fall of the Soviet Union, Svaneti progressively became a constitutional state. Since 2005, the region has opened up to the external world. The result is that the new generation has rejected the barbaric practices of their ancestors. Today, if young women marry it is for love.

© Stephane Remael                    MORE PHOTOS                    ALL STORIES