Where Arranged Marriages Are Customary, Suicides Grow More Common

[1] With her father sitting nearby, 16-year-old Jenan Merza struggled to explain why she was lying in bed

recovering from a gunshot wound. “I didn’t know the gun was loaded,” she said, resting under a red-and-gold

blanket in a stark room with a bare concrete floor. A couple of moments later, after her father left the room to

fix tea and coffee, she cried softly and admitted what really happened, how she had shot herself in the

abdomen with her brother’s Glock pistol after first trying with a Kalashnikov rifle — a weapon too long to point

at herself and pull the trigger. “I tried to kill myself,” she said. “I didn’t want to get married. I was forced to get

engaged.” In this desolate and tradition-bound community in the northwest corner of Iraq, at the foot of a

mountain range bordering Syria, Ms. Merza’s reaction to the ancient custom of arranged marriage is becoming

more common.

▷문장분석

⑴부대상황

As the national economy were faltering, job seekers found it more difficult to lead a normal life.

Amid growing signs of social unrest, a military leader will go there.

With her father sitting nearby, she struggled to explain why she was lying in bed

⑵주어에 두 개의 동사가 걸릴 때

“I didn’t know the gun was loaded,” she said, resting under a red-and-gold blanket.

She cried softly and admitted what really happened, making her father embarrassed.

⑶with / at

He tried to realize his ambition with shoddy economic structures.

Even a single missile must not be launched at defenseless people.

The teacher patted her on the back.

She had shot herself in the abdomen.

North Korean defectors cannot explain their misfortune, what they have gone through so far.

Officials are alarmed by what they describe as a worsening epidemic of suicides, particularly among young

women tormented by being forced to marry too young, someone they do not love. While reliable statistics on

anything are hard to come by in Iraq, officials say there have been as many as 50 suicides this year in this city

of 350,000 — at least double the rate in the United States — compared with 80 all of last year. The most

common methods among women are self-immolation and gunshots. Among the many explanations given, like

poverty and madness, one is offered most frequently: access to the Internet and to satellite television, which

came after the start of the war. This has given young women glimpses of a better life, unencumbered by the

traditions that have constricted women for centuries to a life of obedience and child-rearing, one devoid of

romance.

▷문장분석

⑷describe A as B / be forced to~

Please, tell me what you have in your mind.

Officials are alarmed by what they describe as a worsening epidemic of suicides.

prostitutes (who are ) harassed by human traffickers / the policy (which, that) he proposed

I tried to rescue women tormented by being forced to marry someone they do not love.

⑸compared with / in comparison with

Any explanation can bring about misfortune in such miserable situations.

Reliable statistics on anything are hard to come by in Iraq

This is two times as long as that.

This is twice the length of that.

There have been as many as 50 suicides this year in this city of 350,000 — at least double the rate in the

United States — compared with 80 all of last year.

⑹constrict A to B / limit A to B

I don’t know why she is suffering from a social restriction, one influenced by the nation’s tradition.

the traditions that have constricted women for centuries to a life of obedience and child-rearing, one devoid of

romance.

[2] “The society had been closed, and now it is open to the rest of the world,” said Kheri Shingli, an official in a

local political party and a writer and journalist. “They feel they are not living their life well compared to the rest

of the world.” Last year the International Organization for Migration conducted a study on the growing suicide

problem in Sinjar, where mental health services do not exist, and concluded that “the marginalization of

women and the view of the woman’s role as peripheral contributed to the recent suicides.” A report compiled

this year by a researcher at a local health center concluded, “The way to solve this is to put an end to forced

marriages.” That will probably not happen soon. In assigning blame for the rise in suicides, many people here

mentioned the Turkish soap opera “Forbidden Love.” A romantic drama of the upper class, it is a favorite

program of women here, and some people say it provides an unrealistic example of the lives that could be

available outside Sinjar. Ms. Merza said she watched the show, and she admitted, “I wish I had that life,” but

her anguish seems more basic. At 16, she wants to remain a child. “I want to stay with my mom and not go

back to my husband,” she said. Ms. Merza’s father, Barkat Hussein, interviewed later in private, said he was

aware that the shooting was not an accident. “We gave her to her cousin less than 20 days ago,” he said. “She

accepted him. Like anyone who gets married, she should be happy.” He said he would not force her to return to

her husband, who lives next door.

▷다음을 영어로 옮기시오.

An increasing tendency to seek news online is hardly unique to Malaysia. But here, it is not just technology

driving readers to news Web sites. It is also that — by design, and in contrast to countries like China, with its

infamous Great Firewall — in Malaysia the Internet operates outside the stringent laws that regulate the

traditional media. So while newspapers, radio and television can operate only with a government license and

books and films must be approved by censors, who insist that controls are necessary to avoid social problems

like inflaming religious sensitivities in this predominantly Muslim country, the Internet has remained largely

free of government interference. But now that disparity — between media restrictions so stringent that

Reporters Without Borders ranked Malaysia a low 141 out of 178 on its 2010 Press Freedom Index, and a

relatively unfettered Internet that allows citizens to easily circumvent those restrictions — has called into

question whether the censorship laws are worth upholding in the digital age.

[번역례]

온라인 뉴스를 찾는 경향이 점차 확대되는 일은 비단 말레이시아만의 현상은 아니다. 그러나 이곳 말레이시아에서 독자들

이 뉴스전문 웹사이트로 몰리는 현상은 단지 기술만의 문제는 아니다. 또 다른 이유는, 의도적 측면도 있고 악명 높은 거

대한 방화벽을 갖춘 중국과 같은 나라들과는 대조적으로, 말레이시아에서 인터넷은 전통적 언론매체를 규제하는 엄격한

법률의 규제를 벗어나 운영되기 때문이다. 따라서 신문, 라디오, 텔레비전은 정부의 허가를 받아야만 운영될 수 있고 출

판과 영화도 회교가 국교와 다름없는 말레이시아에서 예민한 종교적 갈등 조장과 같은 사회적 문제를 사전에 차단하기

위해서 언론통제가 필요하다고 단언하는 검열관들의 사전 승인을 반드시 받아야 하지만, 인터넷은 대개의 경우 정부의 간

섭을 받지 않는 자유로운 공간이다. 그러나 현재는 국경 없는 기자회가 2010 언론자유 지표에서 총 178개 대상국가 중

말레이시아를 하위 141위로 규정했을 만큼 엄격한 언론규제와 시민들이 그와 같은 규제를 손쉽게 벗어날 수 있는 상대적

으로 아무런 제약이 없는 인터넷과의 그런 간극으로 인해 사전검열 제도가 디지털시대에 존속시킬 가치가 있는가에 대한

의구심이 제기되었다.