1. "ASADABAD, Afghanistan Shakila, 8 at the time, was drifting off to sleep when a group of men carrying AK-47s barged in through the door. She recalls that they complained, as they dragged her off into the darkness, about how their family had been dishonored and about how they had not been paid.
2. ...abducted along with her cousin as part of a traditional Afghan form of justice known as baad, was the payment....the taking of girls as payment for misdeeds committed by their elders still appears to be flourishing.
3. The reaction of the girls father to the abduction also illustrates the difficulty in trying to change such a deeply rooted cultural practice: he expressed fury that she was abducted because, he said, he had already promised her in marriage to someone else.
4. They put us in a dark room with stone walls; it was dirty and they kept beating us with sticks ....baad is pervasive in rural southern and eastern Afghanistan, areas that are heavily Pashtun, according to human rights workers, womens advocates and aid experts. Baad involves giving away a young woman, often a child, into slavery and forced marriage.
5. For the entire year or so that they were kept, neither girl was given a fresh set of clothes. For the first six months they were not even allowed to wash the ones they arrived in,..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/w...ized-for-elders-crimes.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
And, a related story...
6. "Kabul, Afghanistan (21 Feb.) -- General John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, today issued the following statement:
To the noble people of Afghanistan
7. I offer my sincere apologies for any offense this may have caused, to the President of Afghanistan, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the noble people of Afghanistan."
General Allen, Commander ISAF issued the following statement: | ISAF - International Security Assistance Force
2. ...abducted along with her cousin as part of a traditional Afghan form of justice known as baad, was the payment....the taking of girls as payment for misdeeds committed by their elders still appears to be flourishing.
3. The reaction of the girls father to the abduction also illustrates the difficulty in trying to change such a deeply rooted cultural practice: he expressed fury that she was abducted because, he said, he had already promised her in marriage to someone else.
4. They put us in a dark room with stone walls; it was dirty and they kept beating us with sticks ....baad is pervasive in rural southern and eastern Afghanistan, areas that are heavily Pashtun, according to human rights workers, womens advocates and aid experts. Baad involves giving away a young woman, often a child, into slavery and forced marriage.
5. For the entire year or so that they were kept, neither girl was given a fresh set of clothes. For the first six months they were not even allowed to wash the ones they arrived in,..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/w...ized-for-elders-crimes.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
And, a related story...
6. "Kabul, Afghanistan (21 Feb.) -- General John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, today issued the following statement:
To the noble people of Afghanistan
7. I offer my sincere apologies for any offense this may have caused, to the President of Afghanistan, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and most importantly, to the noble people of Afghanistan."
General Allen, Commander ISAF issued the following statement: | ISAF - International Security Assistance Force
My Favorite Holiday falls on October 31st. It's like that everyday there?
