Afghan Women

Afghan girl was tortured in her home, found justice

The in-laws of a young Afghan girl named Sahar Gul, have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for torturing her in their basement because she refused to prostitute herself, and have sex with the man she was forced to marry at 13. The man, Ghulam Sakhi was 30, and she was well under the legal age of marriage 16, 15 with father's consent. 

Her father died and after being shifted about the homes of relatives she ended up living with her stepbrother Mohammad, his wife resented her presence and she was married of to a man more than twice her age. Ghulam Sakhi paid $5,000 for her, and illegal exchange. For weeks the girl managed to avoid consummating her marriage but was beaten by her husband for this reason, and was once sedated by her mother in law and raped by her husband. Sakhi was known to be violent and beat his previous wife because she could not bear children.

The girl began to lose weight and because of the beatings she couldn't do the housework expected of her, so her in-laws put her into the cellar where she was bound to a mattress and tortured by her husband's parents and her husband himself. She was brutalized, her chest was bitten, hot irons had been stuck in her ears and genitals and they had pulled off two of her fingernails. Neighbors eventually heard her voice from the cellar and called the police who found her in a pile of hay and animal dung. Ghulam Sakhi escaped with his brother and are at large, his parents and sister however, were arrested and charged with the torture and assault of Sahar. In July, the decision was upheld in an appeals court because it was being contested, this is huge progress for women in Middle Eastern countries because it shows that they can find justice from their attackers. Sahar is recuperating from her ordeal in Kabul.