Six-Year-Old Girl Sold as Child Bride in Exchange for Goat


Forced to marry a 55-year-year old man, because her father could not afford to feed the family, the Afagani child, Gharibgol, was sold for sugar, rice, tea, oil and a goat.  Her father swore that the man who married her promised not to have sex with her until she was 18.

The six-year-old girl was taken to a relatives house, where the “husband” told people that she was his daughter.

After the wedding, Abdolkarim reportedly took the girl to a relative’s house in Firozkoh, in Ghor province, pretending she was his daughter.  But the concerned relative raised the alarm, insisting Abdolkarim was ‘undressing her at night’.

According to The Observers, the relative was told be Abdolkarim: ‘No [she’s not my daughter], she’s my wife, her father gave her to me.’

Another concerned individual called the local woman’s rights bureau in the Ghor province, where they will work to get a divorce for the child, as well as have her father “stripped of his parental rights”.

The girl is reportedly now living with her mother.

Women in Afghanistan are allowed to marry from the age of 16, and men from 18.

It comes just days after a 60-year-old Afghan cleric was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a six-year-old girl and marrying her, although he insisted she was a ‘religious offering’ from her parents.

A UN survey revealed that 46.4 per cent of Afghan marriages take place before the women turn 18, five years ago.

The value of a child is worth far more than any dollar amount, or number of goats, but in a culture where this has been an historic norm, there is less outrage.  This young girl is fortunate that there was another adult around to advocate for her.

Source: Daily Mail



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