'Brutally tortured, beaten' Afghan child bride was sent back to in-laws by local authorities

Kabul, Jan 3 (ANI): A 15-year-old Afghan girl, who was brutally tortured, beaten and locked in a toilet by her in-laws for five months after she refused to become a prostitute, attempted to escape from her attackers, but was sent back home by local authorities, it has been revealed.

Sahar Gul was rescued from a house in northern Baghlan province last week after her neighbours reported hearing Gul crying and moaning in pain.

According to police in Baghlan, her in-laws pulled out her nails and hair, and locked her in a dark basement bathroom for about five months, with barely enough food and water to survive. They also burned Gul with cigarettes and cut out chunks of her flesh with pliers.

Now, new disturbing details about how the local community and authorities responded to her abuse has highlighted the ambivalence many Afghans have over how far women should be able to exercise the most basic of legal rights, The Sydney Morning herald reports.

"She ran away to her neighbour's house and told them that her husband was trying to make her become a prostitute," said local community leader Ziaulhaq.

" 'If you are a Muslim, you must tell the government what is happening to me,' she told them," Ziaulhaq added.

The locals said they did take the case to the authorities, but Gul was sent back home, and her family simply promised to stop hurting her, The Guardian reports.

Ziaulhaq also alleged that bribes were paid to government officials to hush up the affair.

Rahima Zarifi, the women's affairs chief in Baghlan province, emphatically denied money was paid said, but she could not remember the details of the case, or why Sahar was sent back home.

Fauzia Kufi, an MP who campaigns on women's issues, said that even then local authorities attempted to resolve the abuse through "traditional means".

Kufi also claims there was strong pressure not to publicise the case.

"Many people don't take these sorts of crimes seriously and don't think it should be reported. Even the local authorities have blamed the department for women's affairs for not trying to solve it locally between families in the traditional way," she said.

Meanwhile, Gul, who suffered both mentally and physically, is being treated in a government hospital in Kabul, but doctors say she may have to be sent to India. (ANI)