Hiding Under A Rickshaw

These stories are just hideous and the reason why the far right's movement to remove women's rights is so crucial. We cannot revert back to a society like this:

I just got an e-mail from Women for Afghan Women directing readers to a heartbreaking-then-inspiring article by Yahoo's award-winning Kevin Sites. Taking a page from Nicholas Kristof's playbook, Sites shares the story of a 12-year-old Afghan girl named Gulsoma who, married off at age 4 (not a typo) when her widowed mother's second husband decided he didn't want her, endured seven years of truly surreal abuse at the hands of her 'husband's' family. (The faint of heart may wish to do some judicious skimming through the middle of Sites' article.) She crawled away one night after being beaten and threatened with death if a missing wristwatch did not turn up, and was taken immediately to a hospital when she was found hiding under a rickshaw. While her family denied abusing her, a neighbor corroborated Gulsoma's story and the police eventually arrested her 'husband' and father-in-law. Gulsoma wound up in an orphanage in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. Her entire body is scarred, the top of her head bald where she was scalded.

She says she still shivers involuntarily at sundown, a learned reaction from being forced to sleep outside in the cold desert night. And she's still afraid that her 'family' will come for her.