Six year old Afghan girl reported to be sold in marriage

Global women have written two articles on child brides (see read more).  We are horrified that this week it has been reported that a family in rural Afghanistan tried to sell their six year old daughter to a Muslim cleric in his 50s or 60s.  She has since been rescued and is in a shelter whilst the cleric has been arrested.

Her parents have said that she was ‘given’ to the cleric as a ‘religious offering’ but family members say the child was kidnapped.

Mohammad Andarabi, the provincial police chief, told The Washington Post that the man, whom he named as Sayed Abdul Karim, had married the girl with the parents’ consent in front of witnesses, after they accepted food and cash in payment. Later the man tried to return her, he said, but was seized by residents and turned over to the police.  “The girl is safe . . . she has not been molested,” Andarabi said. Both Karim and the girl’s father have been arrested for questioning.

Afghan law has set the age of marriage as 16 but many child marriages still occur.  Last year a young bride was stoned to death after being accused of adultery.  And last week a pregnant 14-year-old bride was burned to death after apparently being tortured and set on fire by her husband’s family.

Afghan women’s rights campaigners have been fighting against child brides.  “This act is against Islam and our constitution. We want imprisonment of those involved,” said Shahla Farid, an official of the nonprofit Afghan Women’s Network in Kabul. “This shows that despite our public campaign . . . there are some in Afghanistan who still violate routinely the rights of women and children. These are people without culture and religion, and it will take years to reform such people.”

“In some regions, because of insecurity and poverty, the families marry off their daughters at a very early age to get rid of them,” Sima Samar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as telling journalists recently.

Read More:

Global women – child brides, a global issue

Global women – Virginia bans child brides

Image credit – Unicef photo of the year 2007, Child brides in Afghanistan taken by American photographer Stephanie Sinclair.  The bride was 11 and the groom was in his 40s.