Child Marriage: Afghanistan Father Gives 6 Year Old Daughter To 55 Year Old Imam In Exchange For A Goat

This is unbelievable! In exchange for a goat as well as other food items including rice, tea, sugar, and cooking oil, a father gave her 6-year-old daughter identified simply as, Gharibgol, out in a religious marriage ceremony to a 55-year-old man named Seyed Abdolkarim in Afghanistan.

Abdolkarim, a respected Imam in the area, was arrested after the police received information that he had married the little girl in return for a goat.

Gharibgol was reportedly married off to Abdolkarim, by her father, who has also been arrested by the police, in exchange for a goat as well as other food stuffs. He was attacked by local women and beaten up before the police came to arrest him.

Following his arrest, Gharibgol’s dad disclosed that he had been struggling with his family’s upkeep, adding that the marriage meant he gained food and lost a mouth to feed, Mirror reports.

He also revealed that he had married his daughter off under promises that Seyed would not sleep with her till she was 18 years of age.

Abdolkarim, on the other hand, is reported to have taken his new child bride to the house of a relative in Firozkoh, in Ghor province, claiming that she was his daughter. His relatives had later become concerned after he had begun undressing the little girl at night.

Mr Ahmady reports: “So he asked the mullah, ‘she’s not your daughter?’

“The mullah replied, ‘no, she’s my wife; her father gave her to me’. The host told a friend, who called the local women rights bureau for Ghor province.”

According to tests carried out on the girl by a hospital in Ghor, “there was no sexual intercourse”. The child is currently being housed in a safe location with her mother.

The province’s women’s rights bureau intends to ensure a divorce and the removal of the father’s parental rights, but it will be a complex process as another Imam must carry out the divorce – which is frowned upon in the culture.

Gharibgol is reportedly being housed in protective custody with her mother at a safe location while further investigations are being carried out.

In Afghanistan, the law states that women are permitted to wed from 16 and men from 18 – but influential Imams can escape punishment, according to Mr Ahmady.

Photo credit: The Observers