Kabul , Afghanistan ( CNN ) It is an unimaginably hideous outcome . To be raped by your cousin 's husband ; be jailed for adultery as your attacker was married ; to suffer the ignominy of global uproar about your jailing and assault , but be pardoned by presidential decree ; and then to endure the shame and rejection from a conservative society that somehow held you to blame . The solution in this society ? Marry your attacker . That 's what happened to Gulnaz , who was barely 16 when she was raped . She 's now carrying the third child of her attacker , Asadullah , who was convicted and jailed -- though this was then reduced . Gulnaz 's plight -- like so much in beleaguered Afghanistan -- disappeared from the world 's gaze once she was pardoned and released courtesy of a presidential pardon . Instead of a new start , what followed for Gulnaz was a quiet , Afghan solution to the `` problem '' -- a telling sign of where women 's rights stand in Afghanistan despite the billions that have poured into this country from the U.S. government and its NATO allies during more than a decade of war . We found Gulnaz in her family home . Smile , the name of the daughter born of the rape , is now a shining little girl , bouncing around the house that her mother shares with Asadullah 's first wife -- who is also Gulnaz 's cousin . Asadullah agreed to let us speak with him and Gulnaz because , it seemed , he wanted to show us that things were now settled , that under Afghanistan 's version of social morality he had done the right thing . He had rescued Gulnaz from shame . `` If I had n't married her , ( but ) according to our traditions , she could n't have lived back in society , '' he tells us . `` Her brothers did n't want to accept her back . Now , she does n't have any of those problems . '' 2011 : Thousands sign petition for Gulaz release . Gulnaz remains subdued throughout our meeting and does not once look her husband in the eye . `` I did n't want to ruin the life of my daughter or leave myself helpless so I agreed to marry him , '' she says . `` We are traditional people . When we get a bad name , we prefer death to living with that name in society . '' As Smile attempts to pour tea , the other seven children in this household run around the courtyard . The first wife remains unseen in the house . A portrait of Gulnaz 's liberator in 2011 , the then-president Hamid Karzai , hangs on the wall . But the sense of order here is undermined by the fact that this is a house built around a crime . How Gulnaz ended up here requires some explanation . There was pressure upon her to marry her attacker after her release . But at the same time , other activists were trying to assist her with an asylum bid abroad . `` Unfortunately , Gulnaz was heavily pressured to marry her attacker by various people within the government which , in and of itself , was immensely disappointing , '' her former attorney , an American citizen named Kimberley Motley , tells us . `` Gulnaz was constantly told that neither she nor her daughter would be protected if she did not succumb to their pressure to marry ... Gulnaz essentially became a prisoner of her environment . `` As an uneducated , young , single mother with no family support , it would have been an uphill battle for Gulnaz and her daughter . '' Local pressure won out . She was introduced to her attacker in the shelter where CNN first interviewed her upon release from prison . They talked and it was agreed she would marry him . Most disturbingly , the woman who -- despite knowing the stigma it would create around her -- defiantly insisted she had been raped when we spoke nearly four years ago , now says she was told by her relatives to make up the allegations . `` Now she is beside me and knows that it was not as big as they had shown it , '' says Asadullah . `` No I am not thinking about it anymore , '' Gulnaz adds . `` I do n't have a problem with him now and I do n't want to think about the past problems . My life is OK ... I am happy with my life ... It is going on . '' She is then permitted to talk with us alone . Asadullah moves away but stands close to the door of the room . Though she now maintains she was not raped , she explains her decision . She contradicts her husband , saying her brothers would have taken her back , had she not married him . `` My brothers opposed the marriage and told me to take my daughter and go to Pakistan to live with them instead , '' she says . `` But now we 're married , they disowned me and wo n't see me again . '' Her decision was for her daughter . `` No , I could n't fulfill my wishes in life . I married this man ; I cut relations with my family only to buy my daughter 's future . '' It is truly chilling to see how things have gone for Gulnaz after the level of international attention her story received -- pregnant with the third child of the man who was once her rapist , accepting a life as his second wife , trapped in his home .
Asadullah was jailed after the attack as her rapist was married . Her case gained international attention ; prompted a presidential pardon . She was forced to marry her attacker or face disgrace .