The Wider Image: A daughter's freedom weighed against her siblings' lives
As the village wells dried up and her livestock died in the scorched scrubland of southern Somalia, Abdir Hussein had one last chance to save her family from starvation: the beauty of her 14-year-old daughter, Zeinab. Last year, an older man offered $1,000 for her dowry, enough to take her extended family to Dollow, a Somali town on the Ethiopian border where international aid agencies are handing out food and water to families fleeing a devastating drought. Zeinab refused. "I would rather die. It is better that I run into the bush and be eaten by lions," said the slender dark-eyed girl in a high, soft voice. "Then we will stay and starve to death and the animals will eat all of our bones," her mother shot back. The exchange, related to Reuters by the teenager and her mother, is typical of the choices facing Somali families after two years of poor rains. Crops withered and the white bones of livestock are scattered across the Horn of Africa nation. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra SEARCH "ZEINAB DOLLOW" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
