Special order given to man, 45, who married girl, 6, in sick ceremony
It's an act so disturbing that it even left the Taliban 'horrified', a 45-year-old man has married a six-year-old girl.
The man, who is already married to two other women, bought the young girl from her family before marrying her in the Marjah district of Afghanistan. Since the news emerged, the child's father and the groom have since been detained but not formally charged.
The Taliban says it's 'horrified' that a man has wed a child so young and as instructed the groom to wait until the child reaches nine before he can take her home.
In Afghanistan there is no clear law regarding the age a girl can legally get married - instead it's determined by Islamic law interpretation, with many deeming puberty the age when girls can wed.
Child marriage is rampant in Afghanistan, with families selling their daughters into matrimony so they can afford to eat.
"There are many families in our village who have given away their daughters for money,' a local activist named Mahbob told The Afghan Times. 'No one helps them. People are desperate."
This bartering of girls for marriage, known as walwar, involves trading them for cash based on attributes like appearance, health, and education.
However, financial desperation isn't the sole motive; some girls are traded to settle blood feuds between enemies.
Amiri, 50 from Uruzgan, opened up about marrying off her 14-year-old daughter to a 27-year-old man for 300,000 Afghanis.
She admitted, "I knew she was too young, but we had nothing at home. I used the money to feed the rest of my family."
The practice had dwindled after the US-led invasion but has surged again since the Taliban's 2021 resurgence. Under their rule, women's freedoms have been drastically cut, requiring them to be fully covered when out in public and not speaking too loudly. They're also banned from travelling alone and must have a male relative with them.
Last year, a UN report found this renewed oppression has sparked a 25 per cent rise in child and forced marriages. The International Criminal Court slammed the treatment of Afghan women as a crime against humanity and has issued arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials.
The court said it has "reasonable grounds" to believe Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani are responsible for the persecution of women and girls since the Taliban's comeback.
But the Taliban rebuffed the accusations, deeming them "a clear act of hostility" and an insult to Muslims around the world.
Last summer, 17-year-old Saliha Sadath thought she was going on a family holiday to Turkey - but instead of heading to a villa, she says she was taken to Afghanistan to forcibly marry a 30-year-old cousin.
When she dared to question the situation, Saliha claims relatives threatened to have her stoned to death. Miraculously, she was able to secretly contact a charity and a lawyer in the UK who helped her escape.
She said: 'I now call myself a forced marriage survivor. I'm very lucky to be alive, I should have been executed. There was no embassy, I had nobody to help me and nowhere to go. I want to raise awareness to make sure other girls don't go through this.'
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