China
Chinese woman decides to end her life after she was forcefully engaged to a man
A 19-year-old woman in China ended her life by jumping into the river after her family forced her to engage a man whom she met during a blind date.
According to reports, she was forced to engage with the man whom she met just five days before.
Tongtong, from central China’s Henan province, was pressured into getting engaged to a man she had only met five days before because her mother thought his better-off financial situation would “make her life easier”, reported South China Morning Post.
The girl and her mother ran a small clothes shop in the region.
Tongtong felt reluctant when the man proposed, but her mother and a matchmaker persuaded her to accept, the newspaper reported.
The man’s family gave Tongtong’s mother a 270,000-yuan (US$40,000) bride price at the engagement ceremony. The matchmaker received a 4,800-yuan (US$700) fee, the newspaper reported.
The mother told a local daily that her daughter declined the man for being too much demanding.
Tongtong wanted to end the engagement but the matchmaker persuaded her that her mother, who is a single parent to six children, needed the money.
After the death of the victim, the man demanded the her mother to return the bride price.
She gave him 180,000 yuan, but refused to return the rest because the man lied about his age – he said he was four years older than Tongtong but was in fact eight years her senior, reported South China Morning Post.
The man’s family insisted on payment, blocking her shopfront with a car and playing messages in a loop over a loudspeaker, demanding the money. They also asked a local television station to report the story, the newspaper reported.
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