El Rapto (the Abduction) by Maya artist Vicenta Puzul de Gonzalez, Guatemala. This is a method of "forced marriage," which is, more bluntly, rape, and often a life sentence to serial rape. The sexual double standard is so severe in some patriarchal societies that a raped woman is considered "ruined." In some parts of the world today, families and the law still compel women to marry the men who raped them as, as the only way to restore their "honor." Abduction followed by forced "marriage" is still practiced in Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia, and in Hmong societies in SE Asia, to name a few examples.

Where arranged marriage and strict controls on women's sexuality prevail, women may elope, sometimes staged as abductions, as a way of subverting unwanted arranged marriages. But women's will is not the ruling consideration in male-dominated societies; and huge amounts of effort and maneuvering are necessary to subvert the social rules that restrict women. Even compliance does not guarantee that violation will not take place. In this picture, one woman is trying to prevent the abduction, while another is ignoring it.

Above: "They Kidnap the Girl for her Boyfriend," by Filiberto Chali, Guatemala.