Amid security, economic and governmental crises, Lebanon has been preoccupied during the past two weeks with a tragic humanitarian issue involving a girl named Eva.

Eva hails from a Shiite family that lives in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area that was known as the “misery belt” a quarter century ago. This area is densely occupied by Shiites, most of whom moved decades ago from south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Eva, a 13-year-old middle-school student, liked to have fun and play, and hung drawings of cartoon characters on her bedroom door. Suddenly, Eva became the wife of a man she did not know. She probably still doesn’t know how or why it happened.

The story began when a man asked Eva’s father to return some money he had borrowed. When he fell behind in his payments, the man abducted the girl by force and took her captive to pressure her father into paying. Then, the kidnapper decided to marry the girl off to his son, who is 10 years older than Eva. Since both families are Shiites, and Lebanon lacks a civil personal status law, a Shiite cleric oversaw their marriage contract.

This, however, was not the end. Organizations concerned with women’s rights were informed of the incident and the news was made public on Oct. 23, 2013, creating a fuss throughout the country. The father filed a lawsuit against the kidnapper, with the latter responding through similar means. The lawyer appeared on media outlets claiming that the marriage was performed with the full consent of the girl, who was dragged into the media war, appearing on television mindlessly repeating what she had obviously been taught: “I loved him and we got married.”