Three year old Afghan bride, beaten and tortured

Gulsoma's father died when she was three years old. Her mother and new step-father didn't want her, so she was given to a 30 year old neighbor as his bride. From the beginning of this 'marriage', Gulsoma was beaten, starved, burned, caged, and used as a slave to the 'husband', father-in-law and twelve other family children.

"My father-in-law asked me to do everything — laundry, the household chores — and the only time I was able to sleep in the house was when they had guests over," she says. "Other than that I would have to sleep outside on a piece of carpet without even any blankets. In the summer it was okay. But in the winter a neighbor would come over and give me a blanket, and sometimes some food."

When she couldn't keep up with the workload, Gulsoma says, she was beaten constantly.

"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'" they used her as a human tabletop, forcing her to lie on her stomach then cutting their food on her bare back.

Then, she says, he locked her in a shed for two months.

"I would be kept there all day," she says, "then at night they would let me go the bathroom and I would be fed one time each day. Most of the time it was only bread and sometimes some beans." ...when her father-in-law finally let her out of the shed, he bound her hands behind her back and beat her unconscious. She says he revived her by pouring a tea thermos filling with scalding water over her head and her back.

Five days later, she says, her father in law gave her a vicious beating when his daughter's wristwatch went missing.

"He thought I stole it," she says, "and he beat me all over my body with his stick. He broke my arm and my foot. He said if I didn't find it by the next day, he would kill me." She crawled away that night and hid under a rickshaw. When the rickshaw driver found Gulsoma, broken and bleeding, he listened to her story and took her to the police. She was hospitalized immediately.

It took her a full month to recover from her last beating. But the fear and psychological trauma may never go away.

Gulsoma says she stayed at an orphanage in Kandahar, but was the only girl in the facility. Eventually, her story was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Women's Affairs. Gulsoma was then brought to a Kabul orphanage, where she lives today. source

Gulsoma says she "believes there are other girls like her in Kandahar, maybe elsewhere in Afghanistan". She didn't think that anyone would help her, she simply prayed to God that He would help. God's angel came to Gulsoma in the form of a richshaw driver. Were her torturers arrested, imprisoned, or punished in any way? Not that I know of, but we too can only pray.

Comments

[Debbie]

Carly, I have no doubt there are worse cases, because some victims do not live to tell their stories.

[Carly]

Sadly this isn't the worst case of child abuse I've heard. Child abuse has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with perversion. I'd recommend all who have written those fabulous anti-Islamic diatribes read 'a boy called it'. Dave grew up in the U.S, but still suffered at the hands of his own mother and his spineless father.

You're all right, this is sick and perverted and wrong, but blaming it on a religion you know nothing about is ignorant, pathetic and a cop-out. Blaming an act like this on the perceived differences between 'them' and you just makes it easier for you to close the webpage and go about your life espousing the evils of a religion that is more similar to Christianity than many of you care to realise.

[Mehdia Targuisti]

I am truley disturbed by how many ignorant people there are in this world.
Islam has NOTHING to do with what happened to this poor girl, she was at the hands of evil people that will be punished. An act as tremendously beastly as this is sure to effect even the dooers hearts and eat away at them forever.
Islam can't be acssociated with such an act, this has been done by uneducated individuals who are Muslim by NAME not ACTION.Look at the stories of the nunnary homes around America and England, where young girls would go because they were 'unruly'. Girls would be beaten up by Nuns ,there heads shaved, worked to the bone and had to live in appalling conditions. You dont't hear me blaming the Christian religion for the ungodly acts of the so-called 'nuns'.Because the essence of all religion is beautiful, we cant't blame a whole religion for the acts of a few.
Islam is a beautiful religion based on love, forgivness and peace, i beg all of you to please pick up the Qur'an or read the life or sayings of the prophet Mohammed, peace and blessing upon him, and see for yourselfs why Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.

I pray for all of mankind, may God give us the knowledge and patience with one another. And the ability to see good in eachother.
I hope all I have said is in accordance.
If any of you have any questions about Islam, I will be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
Take of yourselfs and those around you :)
mehdiatarguisti@hotmail.co.uk

[someone]

Muslim Genocide is the most imperative step ,we non muslims should take to save the world.
"Thou must bomb muslims immediately" -Almighty

[someone]

Muslim Genocide is the most imperative step ,we non muslims should take to save the world.
"Thou must bomb muslims immediately" -Almighty

[Sumayyah]

Hello,

I am an American Muslim and stumbled upon this bitter diatribe quite by chance. I think you people need to educate yourself about Islam. Islam is not responsible for what happened to the little girl and Islam is not the source of it. Some human beings are sick perverts and that is just it. You cannot ascribe it to Islam. I highly suggest you dare to read the Holy Quran. You might be surprised at what you find.

[Said]

This is not uncommon in Islamic countries. Islam itself is the source of injustice!!!

[starfish_destroyer]

And people call me a islamophobe for always writing nagatively about these animals.

This makes me ill.

Great again as always Debbie.

[Debbie]

WestwardHo, I love the site "Mohammad peace be upon her, is a woman". The writer does a great job. I'm not familiar with Angry Arabs at blogspot but will try to find out some info.

Have you heard about the comedy group made up of an Egyptian, an Iranian, an Iraqi, an Armenian, and another, I forget. They do live comedy, have been on Fox news, have a DVD coming out. They are so funny. THey are doing their routine to let people know that Arabs can be funny too. I will try to find soem more information on them also.

Enzo, I am learning today of terrible abuse of children in the Madrassas, on the level of child abuse by the Catholic church here in the US. I will research this also, my friend.

[infidHell]

Enzo, do you think you can educate them in 2 millenia. Forget it. Build the longest and tallest boundary wall which is bomb proof every built to separate the 'Believers' from the civilised. Before this shove all the Believers into the middle east.

[WestwardHo]

Debbie,
Do you know what has become of the most astute and funny parody blog I've seen in a while - "Mohammed, peace be upon her, is a woman?"
http://mohammedpeacebeuponherisawoman.blogspot.com/
Gone, and similarly angryarabs.blogspot is up but comments closed, and no new postings in over a week.

I am fearing the worst - Forced off blogspot by jihadi intimidation! :Q
This is just the sort of harmless fun that badly needs to be loudly proclaimed by rational people, and this bit of hilarity was really inspired. :P

Know any way to contact the blog's creator? There may be a significant story behind its brief life.

I ask you b/c I recall seeing a comment from you there. Nice blog, btw!

WestwardHo

[enzo]

Debbie, my friends and colleagues consider me a "tough guy", but a story like this, quite frankly, makes me shiver!
We either start offering these barbarians, at any cost, 2000 more years of REAL education or we have to leave them alone, for good, to their own immutable fate. Otherwise, we'll have to report heartbreaking stories like this one 'til judgement Day!