The case of a tortured Afghan child bride whose treatment shocked the world has led to three members of her husband's family being jailed for 10 years, an official said Saturday.
Afghan child bride Sahar Gul, 15, speaks to Afghan Minister of Women's Affairs Husn Banu Ghazanfar, as she recovers at the hospital in Kabul (AFP)
Sahar Gul, 15, who was burned and beaten and had her fingernails pulled out was found in the basement of her husband's house last December in northeastern Baghlan province, where she had been locked in a toilet for six months.
"The court sentenced her father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law each to 10 years in prison on Tuesday," Afghanistan's supreme court spokesman Abdul Wakil Omari told AFP.
A rights group, Women for Afghan Women which helped Gul in the court case, said it was not satisfied with the sentence.
"We are not happy with the sentence, we are going to help her appeal,"
programme manager Huma Safi told AFP.
"How can someone get only 10 years in prison for torturing a girl to almost death," she said.
Gul, whose case attracted widespread attention in Afghanistan and abroad, attended the court session in Kabul.
"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," Safi said.
Gul's husband and her brother in-law, also allegedly involved in torturing her, are still at large.
Violence and abuse against women continues to be a major problem in Afghanistan a decade after US-led troops brought down the notorious Taliban regime.
According to figures by British charity organisation Oxfam, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2,700 cases for the whole of 2010. (AFP)
시댁에 '고문'당한 10대...근황 알아보니
세계를 충격에 빠뜨렸던 아프가니스탄 소녀신부의 고문에 가담했던 시댁 가족들이 재판에서 징역형을 선고받았다.
사하르 굴(15) 양은 지난해 12월 화상을 입고 폭행을 당한 상태에서 손톱이 뽑힌 채 시댁 지하에서 발견됐다.
그 이전 6개월간 굴 양은 시댁 화장실에 갇혀 지내온 것으로 밝혀졌다.
지난 1일(현지시간) 열린 재판에서 굴 양을 고문한 시아버지와 시어머니, 시누이는 각각 징역 10년형을 선고 받았다고 대법원 대변인이 5일 밝혔다.
인권단체 '아프가니스탄 여성들을 위한 여성들'의 간부 후마 사피 씨는 "한 소녀를 고문해 거의 죽음에 이르게 한 사람들이 어떻게 고작 징역 10년형을 선고받을 수 있는가"라면서 굴 양이 항소할 수 있도록 돕겠다고 말했다.
굴 양의 남편과 시동생도 고문에 가담한 혐의를 받고 있지만 도주 중이다.
미국 주도의 다국적군이 악명높은 탈레반 정권을 축출한 지 10년이 지났지만 여 성에 대한 폭력과 학대는 여전히 아프간 사회의 주요 문제로 남아 있다.
영국의 구호단체 옥스팜의 조사에 따르면 아프가니스탄 여성 가운데 87%는 육체 적, 성적, 심리적 폭력이나 강제 결혼을 경험한 적이 있다고 밝혔다.