Sahar Gul by Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times
Sahar Gul was about 13 when she was sold to a man of 30-year-old to be married. At that time, she still had not reached a legal marriage age which is 16.
As soon as she arrived at her in-laws’ place, which was more than hundreds of miles away from her home, she was tortured and forced to work. When she fell short of her in-laws’ expectations, she was locked up in a cellar for several months, with her hands and legs tied. When her family got to see her finally, with the help of police, she had lost a lot of weight, was covered in bruises and was so weak that she could not even move. It had only been six months after the marriage.
The case went to court. The three in-laws were sentenced to prison while two in-laws managed to escape before the arrests were made. However, latest news said that the three in-laws in prison were released due to lack of evidence.
Under-age marriages are common in Afghanistan rural areas and many girls are going through what Sahar Gul has experienced. Some girls even died from these abusive marriages. Women’s shelters for these vulnerable girls are viewed as “brothels” by conservative ministers and law is rarely on those girls’ side. Although, those abusive situations are extreme violations of both women’s rights and human rights, the voices of the victims mostly went unheard by the world.
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