2 teenage girls publicly flogged

     It was a cold day in January of this year when 2 teenage girls were publicly flogged in Afghanistan. Their punishment was captured on tape, you can hear the wind blowing in the video. The men in the shot wear thick jackets as the teenage girl stands with her back to the man with the whip. You see the fabric of her skirt is thin and every blow cuts her skin. This child bride ran away from her elderly husband simple for the fact she did not want to consummate the vows.

According to Rod Nordland and Alissa J. Rubin of the New York Times,

the case of Khadija Rasoul, 13, and Basgol Sakhi, 14, from the village of Gardan-i-Top, in the Dulina district of Ghor Province, central Afghanistan, was notable for the failure of the authorities to do anything to protect the girls, despite opportunities to do so.  During the public punishment neither girl was seen to have flinched visibly at the beatings.  Afterward they walked away with their heads unbowed.

   These were not the Taliban, but local mullahs and the former warlord, now a pro-government figure who largely rules the district where the girls live. Another choice given to child brides was really no choice at all, Sumbol, a 17 Pashtun girl, said she was kidnapped and taken to Jalalabad, then given a choice: marry her tormentor, or become a suicide bomber.