Masai (a tribe in Kenya) girls, after they reach puberty are married to a man chosen by their father in exchange for cattle. A Masai woman will never be allowed to divorce, except in the most serious cases of physical abuse, and will never be allowed to marry again, even if the husband her father chooses is an old man who dies when she is still in her teens. Instead, she becomes the property of one of her husband’s brothers. She will be one of the multiple wives and will have many children, regardless of her health or ability to provide for them. She will wake up early every day to milk cows, walks miles to get water and wash her clothes, and gathers heavy loads of firewood to carry back home. She will live a life of hardly any physical comforts, dependent on a husband and a family she did not choose. Her life expectancy is 45 years. It’s a hard life out there among the tribes!!
