The dress, the veil, flowers, guest list all point to one thing it’s your special day. A day you have been planning for weeks, months, even years your wedding will be perfect everything you’ve dreamed of since you were a little girl.

Young girls all around the world dream the same dream for their wedding, yet for many their wedding ceremony means a forced marriage being sold into marriage against their will. In a recent video clip aired on CNN, a young 14-year-old girl is repeatedly whipped and beaten after deciding to leave her forced marriage. In Afghanistan girls who try to run away or escape forced marriages are often caught, beaten, whipped and hit repeatedly while the men who beat them are free to do as they please, women after all are their property, especially those sold as child brides.Extreme poverty and lack of law enforcement particularly in the poor rural communities of Afghanistan have lead to the growing practice of child slavery, disguised as marriage. Desperation often drives parents to sell their young daughters as brides in order to pay off loans, settle tribal feuds or disputes.

Extreme poverty and lack of law enforcement particularly in the poor rural communities of Afghanistan have lead to the growing practice of child slavery, disguised as marriage. Desperation often drives parents to sell their young daughters as brides in order to pay off loans, settle tribal feuds or disputes.

Such was the case for one young Afghan girl, Zakira a child bride forced into marriage to a man three times her age to stop a blood feud. Zakira was the currency used to settle an interfamily feud and end round after round of revenge killing.

“There is no law to prevent child marriage and child sale,” said Sima Shir Mohammadi, director of a women’s rights NGO in Herat Province, in an interview with IRIN, adding that the practice was “inhumane… and on the rise”.

In a country where it is estimated that 60% of women and children are sold to become child brides, what can be done for these young girls who have been raped, abused and beaten by their husbands? The organization, Women for Afghan Women is rescuing these young girls one child bride at a time. The traditional and conservative Afghan culture makes their work exceedingly difficult. But they are making a difference and providing shelter for young runaway child brides, fighting for their basic human rights and standing the gap for them and with them.