Colorado City is a city in which it is better not to be born a woman

It is believed that the worst place for women is Afghanistan. However, there is a place that is even scarier. And it is located in the USA.

This is Colorado City in Arizona. A city of fundamentalist Mormons who profess one of the most destructive religious teachings that have separated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was told by a woman who lived in this city, Caroline Jessop. She wrote the book "Escape" (Escape by Caroline Jessop).

In 2003, Caroline was able to escape from her husband and leave the community. She was the first woman who managed to do this without parting with all her children. And there were eight of them at the time of the escape. One of them is nursing, the other is disabled, the elders are hostile towards the mother and her idea of leaving the community.

Caroline's husband was thirty years older than her and at the time of the escape had six other wives besides her. In a huge family, in which about 30 more children lived at the same time (the older ones, growing up, left the house, but the number was replenished with new babies), physical and emotional violence flourished, denunciations of each other were encouraged, friendly ties were not maintained, the closeness of the mother with the children was censured.

Here, literally by points, is what life is like for women and their children in the community:

1. Women in the community have absolutely no rights, a completely slave existence. 2. Children are subjected to violence by both fathers and their wives, who are not mothers, as well as brothers and sisters. 3. A man must have at least three wives in order to receive "salvation". Such a requirement causes huge competition between men, so many young men aged 13 to 21 are expelled from the community under various pretexts.

4. The shortage of brides leads to the fact that minors are forced to marry. Closely related marriages often occur, a stepfather can marry a stepdaughter, etc. 5. The decision on marriage is made by the "prophet" (the leader of the church). He can take his wife away from her husband along with all her children and hand her over to another man if he decides that the previous husband is not religious enough or simply unworthy of her. 6. A woman is not forbidden to work (on the contrary, she is encouraged, especially at her husband's enterprises), but she should give her earnings to her spouse. 7. In the early 2000s, another "prophet" recommended that all children be transferred to home schooling, so that they practically stopped receiving education.

In the book, Caroline writes about her personal experiences and her terrible experience, but since her husband was one of the most influential men in the community (and, according to some reports, now takes the place of the acting "prophet", since the official leader is in prison), she saw the situation as a whole.

Caroline Jessop managed to survive. And even find love. In the photo she is with her husband Brian.