A nine-year-old Afghan girl sold into marriage has been rescued after a CNN report last month highlighted her plight.
The buyer returned the girl, Parwana Malik, to her family after the report provoked community backlash against both the buyer and the father, CNN’s Anna Coren said in a segment with Jake Tapper.
An American charity group, Too Young to Wed, led the effort to save Malik. “They treated me badly,” she said. “They were cursing me. They were waking me up early and making me work”
“Even the Taliban told CNN the practice is forbidden,” Coren noted. A Taliban spokesman told the network, “I request everyone not to sell their children. Child marriage is not a good thing, and we condemn it.”
The 55-year-old purchaser paid the family with cash, sheep, and land valued at $2,200. They still owe him a refund, Coren said, because they used the proceeds to pay off debt.
Watch above via CNN.