Hope for this girl, and the others that are in shelter

but their treatment sickens me, and it's a culture-wide problem that needs to be addressed. Sold to her husband, essentially, prior to the age of consent for marriage, she was forced to work for the family, drugged and used when she refused to have sex with her husband, and beaten and tortured by the family.

Wed and Tortured at 13, Afghan Girl Finds Rare Justice

Frustrated that the girl could not perform the housework they expected, the family put her in the cellar, where she slept on the floor without a mattress, her hands and feet tied with rope. She was given only bread and water to eat. She was also beaten regularly. According to Sahar Gul and Ms. Daqiq, most of the beatings were at the hand of Amanullah, Ghulam Sakhi’s elderly father.

They described grotesque crimes, accusing Amanullah of hitting Sahar Gul with sticks, biting her chest, inserting hot irons in her ears and vagina, and pulling out two fingernails.

“She was helpless,” Ms. Daqiq said. “She had no hope for her life.”

Her husband and his brother are still at large. Her in-laws are in prison for the crimes, under a little-applied law that prohibits violence against women.