By Ruma Paul

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) -Begum, a Rohingya refugee, is relieved she married off one of her seven daughters before funding cuts closed her school and thousands of others in Bangladesh’s cramped refugee camps, affecting nearly half a million children.

The daughter, Begum’s second born, was 16.

“Without school, girls sit idle. People start talking,” said Begum, 35, as her youngest, a toddler, tugged at her headscarf and four other daughters huddled nearby in their bamboo shelter in one of the camps in Cox’s Bazar. “I was afraid. Marriage was the only option. I just pray her husband lets her study.”

Begum, whose husband is struggling with his mental health, declined to give her full name fearing repercussions for marrying off her daughter at such a young age.

Bangla

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