Grieving father Mohammad Azam wants justice
A shocking incident has claimed the life of a pregnant 14-year-old teenager in Afghanistan.
According to Dailymail,
the pregnant 14-year-old Zarah was tortured and set on fire by her
in-laws because her father had eloped with a young woman from their
family.
Grieving father Mohammad Azam visited Afghanistan's capital Kabul
on Monday in a quest for justice over her daughter Zarah's murder.
He said the killing was an act of revenge after the 45-year-old had
run away with a young cousin of his daughter's husband when the family
had agreed to sell her for more money.
The young girl was set on fire last week and died in a Kabul burns
hospital on Saturday. The in-laws had struck a marriage deal Azam, he
said, letting him marry the cousin in payment for a debt they owed him
for construction work.
But they later reneged on the deal, he said, after promising the cousin to another man for more money.
Speaking about the incident, Azam said he had no hope for justice in lawless Ghor.
'The culprits should be brought to justice, my daughter's blood must not go in vain,' he said.
The practice of baad - trading young women to pay debts - is
illegal in Afghanistan, and Azam himself could face prosecution for
engaging in the practice.
While Ghor province has often been the source of reports of young
women being abused by their families or stoned to death after being
accused of adultery or running away from home, such incidents occur also
elsewhere in the country.
About 50 people, including Azam, members of his family and women's
rights activists, rallied on Monday in western Kabul, calling for
justice.
Women's rights activist Veeda Saghari, who attended the
demonstration, said violence against women is largely ignored by
Afghanistan's judicial sector.
'That is why all kinds of violence against women such as acid
throwing, beating, stoning, informal community tribunal verdicts,
burning, forced divorces, forced marriages, forced pregnancies, forced
abortions have reached a peak,' she said.
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