Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of a woman who was jailed for adultery after being raped - but she now faces having to marry her attacker.

The move came after some 5000 people signed a petition for the release of the woman, named Gulnaz, who has served two years in prison after a relative raped her at her home.

She has been raising the child she had by her attacker in a prison cell in Kabul.

The case again highlights the poor state of women’s rights in Afghanistan, 10 years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban who were notorious for their harsh laws against women.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan today, it emerged that a teenage girl and her family were sprayed with acid after apparently rejecting a marriage proposal for her.

Following the outcry over Gulnaz’s case, Mr Karzai called a meeting where judicial officials decided to pardon her, presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said today.

But the officials also said that Gulnaz should marry the man who attacked her, due to fears she could be in danger if released because of the stigma surrounding her attack in ultra-conservative Afghanistan.

She consented to the union, Mr Faizi said.

“She agreed to the marriage but only if his (the attacker’s) sister marries Gulnaz’s brother,” the spokesman said, explaining that this was a way to try to ensure Gulnaz was not attacked by the man in future.

Mr Faizi insisted that her release from prison was not dependent on her agreeing to marry the attacker.

Violence against women in Afghanistan appears to be increasing rather than decreasing, despite billions of dollars of international aid that has poured into the country during the decade-long war.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2700 cases for the whole of 2010.

Some 87 per cent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage, according to figures quoted in an October report by the charity Oxfam.