An Afghan woman who was raped by her cousin’s husband and subsequently jailed for adultery is now married to her attacker and pregnant with their third child.
The woman, identified only as Gulnaz, gave an interview to CNN about her harrowing situation with her rapist, Asadullah, and their young daughter sat beside her in Kabul, Afghanistan.
She was assaulted by Asadullah, who was married at the time, when she was just 16 and imprisoned for 'adultery by force' – a ‘crime’ that carried a 12-year jail sentence. She became pregnant from their rape and gave birth in prison.
She was eventually granted a presidential pardon, but believed her only chance of being able to integrate back into Afghanistan society was to marry her rapist.
"I didn't want to ruin the life of my daughter or leave myself helpless so I agreed to marry him," she told CNN. "We are traditional people. When we get a bad name, we prefer death to living with that name in society."
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