Heartbreaking stories shared by the Washington Post reveal the devastating impact of forced child marriages on vulnerable Afghan children. In the face of extreme poverty, parents, grappling with financial desperation, are compelled to sell their daughters, some as young as six, to survive.
The lives of five young girls – Khoshbakht, Saliha, Fawzia, Benazir, and Nazia – are profoundly shaped by the grim realities of forced child marriages. All of them were sold into marriage before the age of nine. They were sold by their parents, who didn’t see another way out of hunger and poverty.
If they wanted their families to survive, selling their daughters was the only way to do so. “I sold my daughter due to poverty and hunger to save the life of the others. I feel guilty but I had no other choice.” – Mohammed Khan, Saliha’s father
Stories like these are not uncommon in Afghanistan. In the settlement of Shahrak-e-Sabz, 40% of families interviewed by the non-profit organization Too Young to Wed, are compelled by desperation and harsh conditions to sell their young daughters into marriage.
Despite the Taliban’s decree against viewing women as “property,” child marriages have surged due to economic collapse and restrictions on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. Nazul’s mother regrets selling her daughter, but it was the only way to survive. “We didn’t have anything, not even a mattress. I was forced to sell my daughter.”
Families, facing dire circumstances, see the $2,000 bride price as a desperate means of sustaining themselves for a year. This grim solution forces young brides into a life of housework and abuse, exacerbating the already challenging conditions in the settlement.
Escalating rates of suicide and depression among Afghan teenage girls underscore the profound impact of these circumstances on the mental health and well-being of the young brides, painting a bleak picture of the broader social repercussions.
Freedom United said that they don’t and will never accept that young children are married off against their will, in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world.
