'Baad' is illegal, but prevalent in lawless regions
(NEWSER) - When she was 8 years old, Shakila was abducted by men with AK-47s, who beat her, starved her, put her to work, and intended to force her to bear children. Why? Because her uncle had run off with the wife of a local strongman, and that strongman had demanded payment. Handing over girls into de facto slavery, a practice known as "baad," is technically illegal in Afghanistan, but it's still widely used as a way to resolve disputes between families, in part because people avoid corrupt official courts, the New York Times reports. More»
