AFGHANISTAN: Child Bride Seeks Divorce

Submitted by crinadmin on Thu, 05/09/2013 - 11:29

[4 September 2013] -

Authorities in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e Pol have launched a probe into a case involving an 11-year-old girl who was married off to an eight-year-old boy.

The girl, who goes by the name of Gulsum, has asked local authorities to help her to divorce after two months of marriage.

Gulsum's family says they were "forced" to marry her off after Gulsum's father had an affair with a girl in his village and married her as a second wife. The affair angered the second wife's relatives who demanded that Gulsum's father marry off his young daughter to the family's son to settle the feud.

The probe comes as rights activists have demanded that President Hamid Karzai take measures against child marriages and violence against women.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Visit CRIN's page on Afghanistan
Read about child marriages in CRIN's microsite on violence
Read the UN Study on Violence against Children, which lists child marriages as a form of violence

pdf: http://www.rferl.org/content/afghan-child-bride/25095642.html

Country:

Afghanistan

Issues:

Gender and girls

Harmful traditional practices

Violence:

Harmful traditional practices

Tags:

Individual cases of violations

Link :

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