CNN reports on one of the countless victims of sexual abuse and assault in Afghanistan:
The young Afghan girl sits in the center of the room, weeping. Using her hand and her blue scarf to hide her face, she recounts how she was brutally raped by five gunmen.
The girl’s tragic case is one of many in war-torn Afghanistan, activists say.
The 12-year-old girl’s family members say they’ll take their own lives unless justice is served…
“Women and girls, especially young girls, are the most unprotected people of Afghanistan. They are raped, kidnapped and murdered,” Shaima [of RAWA] says.
Just last week, a 3-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by unidentified men, a government official confirms. The toddler was later released and, the official says, is recovering.
“Rapists are roaming around with impunity,” Shaima says, turning her attention to a man — said to be the son of a powerful official — who is accused of raping 22 girls in the northern province of Sar-I-Pul.
Sayed Nurallah says his 14-year-old daughter was one of the aforementioned victims. Nurallah says that coming forward with his daughter’s story makes him a target, which he firmly accepts. He says that seeking justice for his daughter is a matter of integrity.
Sexual exploitation is on of the great hidden scourges of Afghanistan, whether the so-called bacha bazi, or “boy play” (it can sometimes be translated as “child play” but in Afghanistan it generally is limited to boy-harems), or “normal” rape. We’ve written of this before, whether it’s rampant gang-rape, western soldiers seeking counseling after watching little boys raped, or the drug lords keeping harems of children.
So it is of at least some comfort to hear that the police are trying to crack down on sex crimes in the northern part of Afghanistan. The wave of law enforcement supposedly got its start when locals reported a man raping a little boy at an arcade in Mazar-i Sharif, and the police intervened. Surrounding provinces of Sar-i Pol and Jowzjan have also seen an alarming uptick in sex crimes, so it is a good place for the police to start.
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