The Daily Telegraph

Afghan child bride tortured to death by angry husband

- By Our Foreign Staff

AN AFGHAN child who was forced to marry a man at least twice her age in a traditiona­l bridal exchange has been tortured to death by her husband in a revenge killing.

The body of Hameya, whom authoritie­s estimate was aged between seven and 10 years, was found on Sunday night, said Naqibullah Amini, police spokesman for the north-western province of Badghis, yesterday.

Hameya’s husband was on the run from police and her father had been detained for questionin­g, Mr Amini added.

Jamshid Shahabi, the provincial governor’s spokesman, said Hameya was married under a tradition known as “badal”, when girls are exchanged between two families as brides. Badal enables both families to reduce the cost of marriage by avoiding paying a dowry.

After the other girl in the arrangemen­t was killed by her own husband, Hameya’s husband began to torture her in revenge and eventually killed her, Mr Shahabi told AFP.

Hameya’s husband, whom officials said was aged between 20 and 30, already had at least one wife, according to Lailuma Noorzad, head of the provincial women’s affairs department.

Hameya had been married for six months, officials said.

The legal marriage age in Afghanista­n is 16 for girls and 18 for boys, according to the United Nations. But the traditiona­l practice of marrying children still persists in the conservati­ve and patriarcha­l country, largely due to poverty and insecurity.

At least one in three Afghan girls is married before she turns 18, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a report. It found that instances of child marriage had dropped 10 per cent over five years, but remained high.

In 42 per cent of households, at least one family member got married before the age of 18, the study found.

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