How Would You React? - Part I
Let me tell you a little story.
One day when Jennifer Smith, a 14 year old girl, was on her way to school she was hit in the head and abducted. She was brought to a brothel, kept there as a prisoner, and forced to sell her body. Jennifer put up a fight to try to protect her dignity but it only resulted in the owner of the brothel beating her, sexually torturing her, and drugging her so her body could be sold and used by the customers of the brothel. She was a prisoner in the brothel for six year and was beaten every single day.
Thankfully, miracles can happen and when Jennifer is 20 years old a man named John Wilson visits the brothel. John answers Jennifer's pleas to rescue her and after getting her out of the brothel they end up falling in love with each other and get married. Finally, Jennifer is free and life is looking bright for her...
I want to give you a little thinking exercise (and feel free to use the comment section if you want). Try to put yourself into the shoes of the following people. How would you have reacted when meeting Jennifer first time after her escape?
- If you were Jennifer Smith's parent?
- If you were the police/court?
- If you were John Wilson's family?
A follow-up to this post will be posted in the next few days.
Very hard questions
It's not possible, never having been in such a situation, to answer easily. As a parent who has not known where a child is for 6 years, the emotional mix of guilt, relief, surprise, loss, is way too unpredictable to imagine.
As a court or police person it is easier. It's a job, and you have to (in the very rare cases that such things happen) deal with it. Ideally, you are also a reasonable human being. I have known people who deal with abuse cases (I have never heard of such a case as this, although some of those I knew of are pretty horrendous and not so far away). People try to do their job, and to be human, or they get heavily involved, which might help Jennifer Smith more but generally leaves them incapable of going back to their job and therefore of helping anyone else.
If you are John thingo's family, I suppose it is easier to imagine. I am, from time to time, a little cynical. So I wonder how the marriage will last - whether it is based on real love and compatibility or misplaced hero-worship and the ease of soaking that up. Beyond that (and since marriages often fail, it isn't really worth worrying about whether a particular one will, for the most part, so long as it is OK for now) they are in love, and how you react depends on how she turns out to be as a person. Meeting a friend's new lover is always a mix of curiosity, trying to be nice and friendly not suffocating or forbidding. (That comes later ;-) ).
Yes, most want her well but not all
You have a lot of good points there! It isn't straightforward but I see that the underlying theme is compassion and sympathi for the girl. I think most people will react that way. Unfortunately, not everyone is good and poor Jennifer was unfortunate enough to be born in a country and into a family which isn't as forgiving. Read the follow-up to get the details.