"A child is an individual who has not yet reached puberty." [The American Heritage Dictionary]

Are you sure that the girl is not an adult? i.e. doesn't get menstruation ??

As late as 1930 (just 77 years ago), twelve states in America allowed boys as young as 14 and girls as young as 12 to marry (with parental consent)!!!

Throughout most of the 19th century, the minimum age of consent for sexual intercourse in most American states was 10 years. In Delaware it was only 7 years !! Yes... 7 years !!!!

Even today (in 2007), the marriageable age in some American states like New Hampshire is 14 for males and 13 for females, in cases of "special cause" with parental consent and court permission.

In New York it is 16 with parental consent, 14 with parental and judicial consent. It is the same case in Canada (14 with judicial consent).

In other Christian countries, like Brazil, marital status is granted by law to adolescents (legally defined as individuals from 12 to 17) !

Is there a big difference between 12 (the legal age of marriage in Brazil) and 11 (the age of that Afghani girl)??

Was St. Joseph a pedophile because he married the Virgin Mary at age 12, while he was 90 years old ??

Those "barbarian" people gave us the alphabet and taught us how to write. They were building great civilizations when our ancestors were hunter gatherers making scratches on the walls of Europe's caves.

People do not have access to absolute knowledge of reality, but only have access to a set of beliefs they have built up over time, about reality. So it is important to be aware that people's beliefs about reality and their awareness of things are not reality itself or everything they could be aware of.