RULE OF LAW

Afghan Woman Gets Justice

Girl locked away for refusing to consummate marriage.

Sahar Gul won a tremendous and unsung legal victory in July when an appeals court in Afghanistan upheld the 10-year prison sentences for each of her three in-laws after they locked her up and tortured her. Gul was married to Gulam Sakhi when she was 13 and he was 30, after he paid her stepbrother $5,000, even though she was well below the legal marrying age. When she refused to consummate the marriage, her in-laws tortured her and locked her in a windowless cellar for months. The in-laws received 10-year sentences in May. But many women’s-rights activists view this as a very small victory. One expert said, “We have many cases perhaps graver than this where women are murdered. No one hears anything about them.”