"DON'T YOU THINK SHE'S A LITTLE BIT YOUNG?"

Stephanie Sinclair travelled around rural Afghanistan photographing child brides in 2003. She returned with a series of moving, upsetting portraits of terrified adolescents born into a world of misogynistic duties and suicidal despair.

The question above is one Sinclair asked of a man who had just won someone's daughter in a bet. He replied: "Well, we have a saying out here that if she doesn't fall down when you hit her with your cap, she's old enough to marry."

Take a moment to listen to Sinclair narrate the images in this slideshow from The Economist:

~ EMILY BOBROW