http://www.theage.com.au/world/afghan-child-brides-lashed-as-officials-turn-a-blind-eye-20100531-wrap.html
Afghan child brides lashed as officials turn a blind eye June 1, 2010 One of the two girls is flogged by a mullah in Gor Province, Afghanistan. An attempt to flee did not save two girls, writes Rod Nordland from Kabul. THE two Afghan girls had every reason to expect the law would be on their side when a policeman at a checkpoint stopped the bus they were in. Disguised in boys' clothes, the girls, aged 13 and 14, had been fleeing for two days along rutted roads and over mountain passes from their illegal forced marriages to much older men, and had made it to relatively liberal Herat province. Instead, the police officer spotted them as girls, ignored their pleas and promptly sent them back to their remote village in Ghor province. There they were publicly and viciously flogged for daring to run away from their husbands. Their tormentors, who videotaped the abuse, were not the Taliban, but local mullahs and the former warlord who largely rules the district where the girls live. Neither girl flinched visibly at the beatings and afterwards both walked away with their heads unbowed. Sympathisers of the victims smuggled out two video recordings of the floggings to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which released them at the weekend after unsuccessfully lobbying for government action. According to a United Nations Children's Fund study, the brides in 43 per cent of Afghan marriages were younger than 18. Although the Afghan constitution forbids the marriage of girls younger than 16, tribal customs often condone marriage once puberty is reached, or even earlier. Flogging is also illegal. The case of Khadija Rasoul, 13, and Basgol Sakhi, 14, from the village of Gardan-i-Top, in the Dulina district of Ghor province, central Afghanistan, was notable for the failure of the authorities to do anything to protect the girls. Although Herat has shelters for battered and runaway women and girls, the police contacted the former warlord, Fazil Ahad Khan, whom Human Rights Commission workers describe as the self-appointed commander and morals enforcer in his district in Ghor province, and returned the girls to his custody. After a kangaroo court run by Khan and local religious leaders, according to the commission's report on the episode, the girls were sentenced to 40 lashes each and flogged. The Human Rights Commission took the tapes to the governor of Ghor province, Sayed Iqbal Munib, who formed a commission to investigate the incident but took no action, saying the district was too insecure to send police there. NEW YORK TIMES [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
