Kabul, Afghanistan – The family of a 7-year-old Afghan girl raped by two men has come forward to demand justice, defying social customs that view such attacks as a stain on the victim’s honor.
Two months after the rape, the girl is still in pain, rarely speaks and looks no one in the eye.
Two brothers – identified only as 18- year-old Ismat and 24-year-old Mohammad – allegedly asked their teenage sister to lure the girl to their home in the Jaghuri district of Ghazni province and raped her until she lost consciousness, according to human-rights officials and advocates handling the case.
The suspects were briefly held by police and then freed. Rights officials suspect they used personal contacts or bribes to secure their release.
The girl’s family fled north to the capital, leaving home under cover of darkness.
Rape is not uncommon in Afghanistan, but victims rarely come forward because a girl or woman losing her virginity out of wedlock is seen as disgracing her entire family.
Because the crime is seldom reported, there are no reliable statistics on the number of young girls raped, human-rights commissioner Hangama Anwari said. She said it was the second such case in Ghazni this year.
“It’s not reported because of family honor. It’s very unusual that they’re bringing this forward,” said Manizha Naderi, director of the advocacy organization Women for Afghan Women, which is helping the girl’s family. “No one in Afghanistan wants anyone to know their daughter has been raped because a girl’s virginity is so highly valued here.
“If a girl loses her virginity for any reason … she’s not a girl anymore. She’s a woman. Unmarriageable.”
Families and local elders often take the matter into their own hands and resort to traditional tribal laws, which commonly punish girls for the crimes of their male relatives.
Jamila Zafar, a social worker who is counseling the girl and her family, said the brothers’ relatives offered a 6-year-old girl as a future bride to compensate the victim’s family, who rejected the offer.
Jaghuri district chief Khada Dad Erfani said another proposal was that the 7-year- old girl marry a young male relative of the brothers to salvage her honor. The girl’s family also turned down this suggestion, he said.
Meanwhile, the young victim – who is not named to protect her identity – is undergoing psychological counseling in Kabul.
Amir Begum described her granddaughter, a second-grader, as intelligent and bookish but said the attack has nearly rendered her mute.
“Now, she doesn’t want to talk at all, not to anyone, not even me,” Begum said.
“The family of these two boys paid money, and they released their sons from police custody,” the grandmother said. “We are poor. No one listened to us. Now, it’s good the human-rights commission is following up this case.”
