See comments. We provide what many people cannot get locally: uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate. Load more comments. Search Search. Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan. Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia. Afghanistan Pakistan. Belarus Ukraine. Previous Next. January 02, GMT. See comments Print. The wounds, bruises, and scars that cover Sahar Gul's battered body provide gruesome evidence of the abuse Gul has endured in the six months since being sold into marriage far from home with a man twice her age.
Her left eye is nearly sealed shut; her right leg is wrapped in gauze; fingers are broken, and some of her nails have been pulled out. Still, all of it is an improvement from last week, when police found her near death when they arrived to free her from the dark basement where she was being held.
At a hospital in Pol-e Khomri, the capital of the northern Baghlan province, where she first underwent treatment after the rescue, Gul could barely muster a reply to questions posed by a local official, Rahima Zarifi. She accused them of abusing her with pincers and said her mother-in-law pulled out clumps of her hair and tore out her fingernails.
They described hearing of how Gul's father died when she was young and her mother remarried. Some locals suggest she was tortured by her in-laws because they wanted to force her into prostitution.
But Zarifi, the director of the local Women's Affairs Ministry in Baghlan, said it was still unclear why she was tormented.
