The New York Times reports that two young Afghani girls, ages 13 and 14, were recently caught dressed as boys in an attempt to flee their village by bus. The two were leaving their homes in order to escape their much older husbands, who the girls report beat them when they resisted consummating their marriages. Police recognized the children to be girls and sent them back to their homes, where they were subjected to brutal public floggings. These beatings were condoned by local mullahs and a former warlord who serves as the “moral enforcer” to this district in the Ghor Province.

After the public beatings, the two girls were allowed to divorce their husbands. However, this is not always the case. Many runaway brides are returned to their older husbands. In 2008, two runaway brides were killed by their fathers.

The marriage of girls who are under 16 is technically illegal, as is flogging, although both are still often allowed under tribal customs. A study by UNICEF revealed that 42% of Afghan marriages recorded from 2000 to 2008 involved wives who were under 18. One shelter in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, rub by Women for Afghan Women, has become the home of 108 young escaped brides since this January alone.

Herat, the area where the girls were arrested, does have shelters for battered and runaway girls. However, the police instead sent the girls back to their village. It is common for the police to return runaway child brides to their home, either because they do not understand that these marriages are illegal, or because they are against the law.

Fawzia Kofi, a well-known female member of Parliament, says that she is “sure there are worse cases we don’t even know about… Early marriage and forced marriage are the two most common forms of violent behavior against women and girls.”

Many child marriages are fueled by poverty, as wealthy older men may pay a large sum of money for their young bride. The marriage also leaves the father of the bride with one less mouth to feed.

A video of the beating was sent to government officials, but the government issued no response. The governor of Ghor Province, as well as Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, refused to act when showed the video tape of the flogging.

To learn more, visit The New York Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/world/asia/31flogging.html?pagewanted=1&sq=May%2030%202010&st=nyt&scp=7.