Sahar Gul’s Torturers Jailed For 10 Years

A fifteen-year-old Afghan child bride, Sahar Gul, was burned, beaten, and had her fingernails pulled out by three members of her husband’s family. The torturers were sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Abdul Wakil Omari, Afghanistan’s supreme court spokesman, told AFP:

“The court sentenced her father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law each to 10 years in prison on Tuesday.”

Gul’s case received widespread attention in Afghanistan as well as abroad after receiving a high level of publicity from various media outlets. Her husband and brother-in-law, another alleged torturer, are currently at large, Y! News reported.

Women for Afghan Women, a rights group which assisted Gul in the court case, indicated that the group was dissatisfied with the verdict. The group’s program manager, Huma Safi, was quoted by the AFP having said:

“We are not happy with the sentence, we are going to help her appeal. How can someone get only 10 years in prison for torturing a girl to almost death? When she first entered the court and saw her in-laws, she was afraid and shaking, but later she calmed down and asked for death penalty for her in-laws.”

The abuse of women in Afghanistan continues to plague the war-torn country, even after foreign troops, led by the United States, managed to topple the Taliban regime.

Oxfam, a British charity organization, has indicated that 87% of Afghan women report having experienced either physical, psychological, or sexual violence or forced marriage.

Do you believe that ten-years is an adequate sentence for those involved in nearly torturing to death fifteen-year-old Sahar Gul?