PUL-E-KHOMRI (SW): Officials at the provincial Women Affairs Department in northern Baghlan has said that an eight years old girl has been given away by clerics and tribal elders to settle a dispute.
Khadeja Yaqin, Head of the Department, told Salam Watandar that this young girl’s elder sister was forced to be engaged with the son of a local influential tribal man in Nahrin district two months ago.
Baghlan Police found the dead body of the engaged girl who was raped and killed some 5 months ago.
According to the police, the family whom the girl was engaged with, has taken her eight years old sister in exchange to solve the dispute.
Khadeja Yaqin said that they would do their best in cooperation with the Police Chief and governor to follow the case and arrest those who have taken the girl away in this feud.
Shah Zaman, the father of the young girl, has come to the capital city of the province to seek justice. He said that the in-laws of her dead daughter forced her to run away and then forced her family to give them his other young girl.
He said that they have forced him to take his daughter with them. He warned that if the government did not do anything about the case, he would commit suicide.
“They imprisoned me for two days and after I was released they told me to give my young daughter in exchange to solve the dispute”, he noted.
Officials at the Women Affairs Department are concerned about the poor condition of women in the province and said that the culture of Baad Dadan( Traditional practice involving giving a girl to another family to resolve a dispute) and forced marriages are common in some parts of the province.
ENDS
