阿富汗童婚悲劇 14歲孕婦被燒死
KABUL, Afghanistan — As a young girl, Zahra became consumed with the idea of a life of learning, seizing on every new opportunity that trickled to her isolated town in the western Afghan province of Ghor.
阿富汗喀布爾——作爲一個小姑娘，扎赫拉(Zahra)嚮往着一個不斷學習的人生，生活在阿富汗西部古爾省的這個偏遠小鎮上，她會抓住每一個機會去學習。
In a school drama, she performed the role of Parisa, a young girl barred from attending school by her conservative family. When an educational circus traveled through about three years ago, she was one of the enthusiastic participants, selected as one of three students among 70 to take her new juggling act to Kabul.
參加學校的戲劇表演時，她扮演了帕裏薩(Parisa)，一個被保守的家人禁止上學的小姑娘。大約三年前一個教育馬戲團途經鎮子時，她是熱心的參與者之一。她和另外兩名學生被從70人中選拔出來，前往喀布爾表演她新學到的拋接雜耍。
But within the short span of her life, she was bartered away.
但在她短暫的一生中，她被作爲貨品交易了出去。
When her mother was paralyzed and her father decided to marry again, Zahra, then around 11 years old, became part of the dowry, according to her father’s accounts to reporters. Then, about two years later, as a sixth grader, she was married off.
據她父親告訴記者，當她的母親癱瘓，而他決定再娶時，當時大約11歲的扎赫拉成了彩禮的一部分。之後過了大約兩年，上六年級的她被嫁了出去。
Last week, Zahra arrived at the central hospital in Ghor with burns over 90 percent of her body. She died six days later, on Saturday, in a Kabul hospital. She was four months pregnant, and she was 14 years old, her father said.
上週，扎赫拉來到古爾省中心醫院，全身90%燒傷。六天後的週六，她在喀布爾一家醫院去世。她父親說，去世時扎赫拉14歲，懷有四個月的身孕。
The father, Muhammad Azam, said that her death was the culminating act of long abuse by her husband’s family. He accused them of beating and stabbing her after she refused to work in the opium fields while pregnant, and he said they then set her on fire with gasoline to cover their crime.
扎赫拉的父親穆罕默德·阿扎姆(Muhammad Azam)說，她的死是她丈夫一家長期虐待的結果。他指控他們在懷孕的扎赫拉拒絕在罌粟地裏幹活後毆打併用刀捅她，並表示在那之後，他們用汽油將她身上點燃，試圖掩蓋自己的罪行。
Zahra’s husband’s family insists that her death was by self-immolation, according to the police.
據警方介紹，扎赫拉的丈夫一家堅稱她的死是自焚造成的。
As investigators in Kabul and Ghor tried to piece the episode together, the conversation about her life and death once again brought to the fore the issue of child marriage and women’s rights in Afghanistan. Despite years of effort to advance women’s basic rights and build a government that protects them, they largely are still treated as little more than property.
在喀布爾和古爾省的調查人員試圖理清事情原委的同時，扎赫拉的生平和死亡引發的討論，再次讓阿富汗的童婚和女性權利問題成爲了焦點。儘管多年來一直在努力促進女性的基本權利，建立一個保護女性的政府，她們大多依然被認爲不過是一種財產。
Zahra’s family, with the help of activists, has set up a protest tent near the hospital in Kabul to demand justice. The arguments a New York Times reporter saw there on Monday over her age and the circumstances of her death also highlight a clash of values still unfolding in the country.
在活動人士的幫助下，扎赫拉的家人在喀布爾那家醫院附近搭建了一頂抗議帳篷，要求公正處理此事。週一，《紐約時報》的一名記者在那裏看到了圍繞她的年齡和死因產生的爭論。這些爭論也突顯了該國依然存在的價值觀衝突。
Even her own relatives were quick to defend the tradition of marrying young girls off to settle family disputes. And by his own account, though it was later contradicted by other relatives, Mr. Azam bartered her away for a marriage performed before it would be legal under Afghan national law at age 16.
即便是她自己的親戚，也迅速爲把年輕女孩嫁出去以解決家庭糾紛這一傳統辯解。根據阿扎姆自己的說法，他在女兒尚未達到阿富汗法律規定的結婚年齡16歲之前，就讓女兒成了一樁婚姻中的交易品。不過後來，這番言論遭到其他親屬的反駁。
Mr. Azam initially told reporters in Ghor, as well as in Kabul, that Zahra, who had just one name, had been 11 years old when she was promised into marriage, and figured she was 14 when she died. Circus organizers as well as locals in Ghor recalled her as a “very lively” 13-year-old sixth-grader before she was married two years ago, which would make her 15 when she died.
阿扎姆一開始對古爾省以及喀布爾的記者表示，扎赫拉——她沒有姓氏——在成爲婚姻交易品的時候是11歲，因此算出她去世時是14歲。但馬戲團的組織者和古爾省當地的人回憶起兩年前尚未結婚的扎赫拉時，稱她那時13歲，是一個“非常活潑”的六年級學生。若是這樣，她去世時便是15歲。
But later in the day at the protest tent in Kabul, other relatives tried to control the narrative and speak over Mr. Azam, as it became evident that he could be liable for forcing a child into marriage. They said Mr. Azam was in shock and did not know what he was saying — that in fact, Zahra had been 15 when she was married and 17 when she died.
但當天晚些時候，在喀布爾的抗議帳篷裏，其他親屬試圖控制相關敘事，更正阿扎姆說過的話，因爲顯然，阿扎姆可能要因強迫孩童結婚承擔法律責任。他們說，阿扎姆是懵了，不知道自己在說什麼，並稱實際上扎赫拉結婚時是15歲，去世時爲17歲。
