LONDON: An Ethiopian woman whose terrifying ordeal of kidnap and rape at the hands of her would-be husband inspired Angelina Jolie’s new film Difret says she hopes her story will help end the tradition of child bride abductions.

Difret, which is released in the United States on Friday, tells the story of Aberash Bekele who was put on trial for murder at the age of 14 after shooting dead her abductor in a case which sent shockwaves through Ethiopia.

Bekele, who spent many years in exile after the trial, said she was inspired to speak out by Malala, the Nobel prize-winning girls’ rights campaigner.

Actress and rights campaigner Jolie, Difret’s executive producer, said the film “shows how the courage of brave individuals can awaken the conscience of a society.”

Bekele was abducted by horsemen as she walked home from school in southern Ethiopia in 1996. She was taken to a hut where she was raped by a much older farmer in a bid to force her into marriage — a practice known as telefa in Ethiopia.

“I knew I had to fight back and escape the first chance I got,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an e-mail interview on Friday.







She seized her opportunity when her kidnapper left his gun leaning against the wall and the door unlocked.

“My father had taught me how to fire a gun, so I took it and ran. When he and his friends chased me, I shot him. It was the most terrifying, horrible ordeal of my entire life — and I’m one of the lucky ones,” she said.