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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged to take action against the “cowardly” perpetrators of violence against women in the wake of a horrific case of the torture of a child bride.

The president made the commitment after a visit by a delegation from the Afghan Women’s Network over Sahar Gul, 15, who was burned and beaten and had her fingernails pulled out after she defied efforts to force her into prostitution.

Gul was found last month in the basement of her husband’s house in northeastern Baghlan province, where she had been locked in a toilet for six months by her husband and his parents.

The president said that he always took measures as soon as he heard about cases of violence against women, and would continue to take the issue seriously so that the culprits were brought to justice.

“Hamid Karzai termed violence against women as a cowardly act and said: ’In our country women are not just the victims of family violence, but they also get killed by terrorists and foreign forces,’” said a statement from his office.

This last remark was seen as a reference to civilian deaths in the US-led war against Taliban insurgents — a regular Karzai target.

The statement gave no details of what action the president would  take. Gul’s mother-in-law, sister-in-law and father-in-law were arrested but her husband is still at large.

Afghan Women’s Network lawyer Wida Latif told AFP ahead of the meeting that the group would ask Karzai to give the girl a place to  live.

“Or else she will be taken to a women’s shelter and will be forgotten like many other women who live in those shelters,” said Latif.

According to figures in an Oxfam report in October, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2,700 cases for the whole of 2010.

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Wed Jun 19 00:17:42 SAST 2013 ::

Jan 12, 2012

nevus

sies maan!!
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Jan 12, 2012

CheeseBoy

My heart bleeds for Afghan women and girl children

if its not NATO bombing the sh!t out of them, their homes and families, its their own society which treats them worse than stray dogs.
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Jan 12, 2012

MommaC

Oh my soul !!!
Poor child !!!

It makes me remember just how privileged I am to live in a country where women are not just property
For all our horrendous stories of women and children abuse, at least we have ways of escaping from situations like this. This poor child had no way to escape
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Jan 12, 2012

MORNACHIES

This is a really bad .is there any Zulus in that part of the world ?
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Jan 12, 2012

MuAfro

Arabs, they want to force everything on society..haai!........
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Jan 12, 2012

candilious

My freaken word ,dont even know how to comment on this subject
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Jan 12, 2012

MuAfro

Invite Robin
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Jan 12, 2012

Iwe

Do all religious group ever teach men how to protect woman and children? Or do any traditions ever teach men how to take care of their woman and children. Because clearly the law can be made but that does not seems to help.
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Jan 12, 2012

DeCock1

No matter how strange our country looks at times....no matter how cruel our people can be at times....SA is still the best country for me to live inn....sadness for this girl....

MORNACHIES
This is a really bad .is there any Zulus in that part of the world ?
________________________________
lol.....hayi mani you! lol
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Jan 12, 2012

ayobaness

haikhona
kganthe Jesu o tlo boa neng?
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