Sahar Gul

According to a new report issued by the U.S. State Department, the sexual abuse of children in Afghanistan has reached an all-time high with 60 percent of girls now being married before their 16th birthday.

According to CNSNews.com, a report entitled "2013 Country Report on Human Rights in Afghanistan" has found that the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and overthrow of the Taliban 12 years ago has done little to spare the young girls of this nation who are being abused in marriages that can take place as early as eight years of age.

“Despite a law setting the legal minimum age for marriage at 16 for girls and 18 for boys, international and local observers estimated that 60 percent of girls were married before the age of 16,” the State Department reported.

“Some girls as young as six or seven were promised in marriage, with the understanding that the actual marriage would be delayed until the child reached puberty. Reports indicated, however, that this delay was rarely observed and that young girls were sexually violated by the groom and then by older men in the family, particularly if the groom was also a child."

This is in spite of a new law put into effect in 2009 by presidential decree, known as the Elimination of Violence Against Women bill, which makes violence against women, including rape, battery or beating, child and forced marriage, humiliation, intimidation and refusal of food a crime.

The problem is that the law is not being enforced. The State Department found that only a small percentage of reported crimes against women are pursued by the Afghan government.

One of the most horrendous cases involved Sahar Gul, now 15, who was married off to a soldier named Gulam Sakhi when she was just 12 years-old. Sakhi and his family tried to force her into prostitution. When she refused, they locked her in the basement, tore out her fingernails, tortured her with a hot iron, and broke her fingers.

At one point, Gul managed to escape and alerted a neighbor to what was going on in the house. The neighbor reported it to the authorities, but they eventually returned Gul to her husband.

The next time authorities came to the Sakhi house it was after a relative of the family tipped them off to what was going on. At this point, the girl was in such bad shape she couldn't walk and had to be wheeled out in a wheelbarrow and hospitalized.

Sakhi and his parents were arrested and sentenced to 10 years, a ruling that many saw as a giant step forward for Afghan women; however, the government quickly back-tracked and released all three less than a year later.

Afghan law may require that brides must be 16 years of age, but this doesn't amount to much in a nation where only a small percentage of the population have birth certificates.

“A survey of married women between the ages of 20 and 24 found that 39 percent had been married before the age of 18," the State Department reported. "Very few marriages were registered, leaving forced marriages outside legal control.”

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