Freed rape victim may have to marry her attacker

AFGHANISTAN has pardoned a woman who was raped by a family member but then jailed for adultery.

It remained unclear whether the 21-year-old-woman, known as Gulnaz, would still have to marry the man who attacked her, her cousin’s husband, after an earlier release offer which stipulated they must marry.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s palace issued the statement pardoning Gulnaz, a rarity in such a case in staunchly conservative Muslim Afghanistan.