The girl and her father and uncle expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence, saying the culprit, Mullah Mohammad Amin, should have been given the death penalty. A women’s activist, Jamila Azizi of the Development and Support of Afghan Women and Children Organization, also said the prison sentence was disappointing, noting that five men were hanged recently in the notorious Paghman gang rapes, where the victims were wives returning from a wedding. “How and why raping this little girl earns him only prison and they had the death penalty, I don’t understand,” she said. “He ruined her for life.”

Shackled with chains around his waist, attached to handcuffs, Mullah Amin was obliged to kneel on the floor of the crowded judge’s chambers, which were used as the courtroom, while everyone else sat on chairs. The girl, whose name is being withheld for her safety outside her village, sat about six feet away and covered her face entirely with her veil so she would not have to see Mullah Amin, who did not once look at her.

She wept uncontrollably as the prosecutor, Mujahid Raidan, read the mullah’s earlier, detailed confession and the investigative report detailing her horrific injuries. But when the mullah spoke in his own defense and claimed she had seduced him, the girl stopped sobbing and pulled aside her veil enough to speak directly to him. “Hey liar, hey liar,” she said. “God hate you, you are dirt, you are dirt, you are a vampire.”

Prominent mullahs and some officials in Kunduz had earlier claimed the girl was actually as old as 17, above the age of consent; since Afghans have no birth certificates and generally do not celebrate birthdays, her exact age is hard to prove. But her mother says she is 10, and a forensic medical examiner estimated her age at 10 to 11 years.

Judge Mohammad Suliman Rasuli said the mullah’s admission that he had sex with the girl could not be considered adultery because of her young age, and was tantamount to an admission of rape.