She was sold her daughter to a stranger so her family could eat as Afghanistan crumbles

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She was sold to a stranger so her family could eat as Afghanistan crumbles

By Anna Coren, Jessie Yeung and Abdul Basir Bina, CNN

Updated 0008 GMT (0808 HKT) November 2, 2021

(CNN)Parwana Malik, a 9-year-old girl with dark eyes and rosy cheeks, giggles with her friends as they play jump rope in a dusty clearing.

But Parwana's laughter disappears as she returns home, a small hut with dirt walls, where she's reminded of her fate: she's being sold to a stranger as a child bride.

The man who wants to buy Parwana says he's 55, but to her, he's "an old man" with white eyebrows and a thick white beard, she told CNN on October 22. She worries he will beat her and force her to work in his house.

But her parents say they have no choice.

For four years, her family have lived in an Afghan displacement camp in northwestern Badghis province, surviving on humanitarian aid and menial work earning a few dollars a day. But life has only gotten harder since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan on August 15.

As international aid dries up and the country's economy collapses, they're unable to afford basic necessities like food. Her father already sold her 12-year-old sister several months ago.

A camp for internally displaced people in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis province, Afghanistan, on October 17.

Parwana is one of many young Afghan girls sold into marriage as the country's humanitarian crisis deepens. Hunger has pushed some families to make heartbreaking decisions, especially as the brutal winter approaches.

The parents gave CNN full access and permission to speak to the children and show their faces, because they say they cannot change the practice themselves.

"Day by day, the numbers are increasing of families selling their children," said Mohammad Naiem Nazem, a human rights activist in Badghis. "Lack of food, lack of work, the families feel they have to do this."

An impossible choice

Abdul Malik, Parwana's father, can't sleep at night. Ahead of the sale, he told CNN he's "broken" with guilt, shame and worry.

He had tried to avoid selling her -- he traveled to the provincial capital city Qala-e-Naw to search unsuccessfully for work, even borrowing "lots of money" from relatives, and his wife resorted to begging other camp residents for food.

But he felt he had no choice if he wants to feed his family.

"We are eight family members," he told CNN. "I have to sell to keep other family members alive."

 

Parwana Malik, 9, and her father Abdul, in their home at a camp for internally displaced people in Afghanistan's Badghis province.

 

The money from Parwana's sale will only sustain the family for a few months, before Malik has to find another solution, he said.

Parwana said she hoped to change her parents' minds -- she had dreams of becoming a teacher, and didn't want to give up her education. But her pleas were futile.

On October 24, Qorban, the buyer, who only has one name, arrived at her home and handed 200,000 Afghanis (about $2,200) in the form of sheep, land and cash to Parwana's father.

"This is your bride. Please take care of her ... please don't beat her"Abdul MalikParwana's father

 

Qorban didn't describe the sale as a marriage, saying he already had a wife who would look after Parwana as if she were one of their own children.

"(Parwana) was cheap, and her father was very poor and he needs money," Qorban said. "She will be working in my home. I won't beat her. I will treat her like a family member. I will be kind."

Parwana, dressed in a black head covering with a colorful floral garland around her neck, hid her face and whimpered as her weeping father told Qorban: "This is your bride. Please take care of her -- you are responsible for her now, please don't beat her."

Qorban agreed, then gripped Parwana's arm and led her out the door. As they left, her father watching by the doorway, Parwana dug her feet into the dirt and tried to pull away -- but it was no use. She was dragged to the waiting car, which slowly pulled away.

'Absolutely cataclysmic'

Since the Taliban's takeover, stories like Parwana's have been on the rise.

Though marrying off children under 15 is illegal nationwide, it has been commonly practiced for years, especially in more rural parts of Afghanistan. And it has only spread since August, driven by widespread hunger and desperation.

More than half the population is facing acute food insecurity, according to a United Nations report released this week. And more than 3 million children under age 5 face acute malnutrition in the coming months. All the while, food prices are soaring, banks are running out of money and workers are going unpaid.

Nearly 677,000 people have been displaced this year due to fighting, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Many of them live in tents and huts in internal displacement camps like Parwana's family.

 

Men sitting at a camp for internally displaecd people in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis province, on October 17.

 

"It's absolutely cataclysmic," said Heather Barr, associate director of the women's rights division at Human Rights Watch. "We don't have months or weeks to stem this emergency ... we are in the emergency already."

The problem is particularly acute for Afghan girls, who have stayed home and watched their brothers return to secondary school since the Taliban takeover. The Taliban said it is working on a plan to allow girls to return too, but have not said when that could happen or what conditions may be imposed.

The uncertainty combined with rising poverty has pushed many girls into the marriage market.

 

"As soon as a girl falls out of education, then suddenly it becomes much more likely that she's going to be married off"Heather BarrHuman Rights Watch

"As long as a girl is in school, her family is invested in her future," said Barr, from Human Rights Watch. "As soon as a girl falls out of education, then suddenly it becomes much more likely that she's going to be married off."

And once a girl is sold as a bride, her chances of continuing an education or pursuing an independent path are close to zero.

Instead, she faces a much darker future. Without access to contraception or reproductive health services, nearly 10% of Afghan girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

Many are too young to be able to consent to sex and face complications in childbirth due to their underdeveloped bodies -- pregnancy-related mortality rates for girls aged 15 to 19 are more than double the rate for women aged 20 to 24, according to UNFPA.

'I don't want to leave my parents'

Magul, a 10-year-old girl in neighboring Ghor province, cries every day as she prepares to be sold to a 70-year-old man to settle her family's debts. Her parents had borrowed 200,000 Afghanis ($2,200) from a neighbor in their village -- but without a job or savings, they have no way of returning the money.

The buyer had dragged Magul's father, Ibrahim, to a Taliban prison and threatened to have him jailed for failing to repay his debt. Ibrahim, who only goes by one name, said he promised the buyer he would pay in a month. But now time is up.

"I don't know what to do," Ibrahim said. "Even if I don't give him my daughters, he will take them."

Magul's mother, Gul Afroz, feels just as helpless. "I'm praying to God these bad days pass," she said.

Like Qorban, the buyer claimed he would not mistreat Magul and that she would simply help with cooking and cleaning at his home. But the reassurances ring hollow in the face of his threats against Magul's family.

"I really don't want him. If they make me go, I will kill myself," Magul said, sobbing as she sat on the floor of her home. "I don't want to leave my parents."

It's a similar situation for a nine-member family in Ghor province that is selling two daughters aged 4 and 9. The father has no job, like most in the displacement camp -- but he faces even tougher odds with a disability.

 

"If we have food and there is someone to help us, we would never do this"RokshanaGrandmother

He is prepared to sell the girls for 100,000 Afghanis (about $1,100) each. Zaiton, the 4-year-old, with wispy bangs and large brown eyes, said she knows why this is happening: "Because we are a poor family and we don't have food to eat."

Their grandmother, Rokhshana, is distraught.

"If we have food and there is someone to help us, we would never do this," Rokhshana said through tears. "We don't have any choice."

 

Zaiton, 4, plays with her brother at their home in Ghor province, Afghanistan.

 

International funding dried up

Local Taliban leaders in Badghis say they plan to distribute food to stop families selling their daughters. "Once we implement this plan, if they continue to sell their kids we will put them in jail," said Mawlawai Jalaludin, a spokesperson from the Taliban's Justice Department, without elaborating.

But the problem stretches beyond just Badghis. And as winter approaches, both the Taliban and humanitarian groups are pleading for more aid, hoping it could stem the rise in child marriages.

The Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan as the United States and its allies withdrew prompted the international community to halt development assistance -- money that had been vital in propping up the country's economy and key services.

 

Taliban fighters on a pick-up truck along a road in Band Sabzak area in Badghis province, Afghanistan, on October 17.

Countries and multilateral institutions have been reluctant to renew pledges for fear of appearing to legitimize the Taliban as Afghanistan's leaders.

With the country's economy close to collapse, UN donors pledged more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid in September, of which $606 million would meet Afghans' most pressing needs. But less than half those pledged funds have been received, with some member states who have not yet paid, according to a UNOCHA spokesperson.

Several of the families and experts CNN spoke with expressed frustration at the shortage of aid during the country's direst hour.

 

More than $1 billion in aid pledged for Afghanistan as country faces 'most perilous hour'

Isabelle Moussard Carlsen, head of office at UNOCHA, emphasized that humanitarian aid workers were still on the ground, providing relief and supporting hospitals -- but it's not enough.

"By not releasing the (development) funds that they are holding from the Taliban government, it's the vulnerable, it's the poor, it's these young girls who are suffering," Carlsen said.

Barr and Carlsen acknowledged the need for world leaders to hold the Taliban accountable for human rights violations -- but they warned the longer Afghanistan goes without development assistance or injected liquidity, the more families face death by starvation, and the more girls are likely to be sold.

The Taliban has also appealed for aid. "The Taliban is asking aid agencies to come back to Afghanistan and help these people," said one Taliban director of an internal displacement camp in Ghor province. "I'm requesting the international community and aid agencies, before the winter comes, to please come and help."

 

"I will have to sell another daughter if my financial situation doesn't improve -- probably the 2-year-old"Abdul MalikParwana's father

Back in the Afghan displacement camp in Badghis province, Malik is under no illusions about what the sale means for his daughter -- or what the grim situation means for his family's future.

Qorban said he will use his daughter as a worker not a bride, but Malik knows he has no control over what happens to her now.

"The old man told me, 'I'm paying for the girl. It's none of your business what I'm doing with her ... that's my business,'" Malik told CNN.

The ominous warning weighs heavily on him as he considers the bleak days ahead. The cold is creeping in, and snow has already begun coating parts of the country. When the money from Parwana's sale runs out, he will be back at square one -- with three daughters and a son still at home to support.

"As I can see, we don't have a future -- our future is destroyed," he said. "I will have to sell another daughter if my financial situation doesn't improve -- probably the 2-year-old."

 

link  :  https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/01/asia/afghanistan-child-marriage-crisis-taliban-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

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DRAGGED AWAY 

Harrowing moment Afghan dad is forced to sell daughter, 9, as bride to 55-year-old buyer as he begs him not to beat her

Jon Rogers  14:46 ET, Nov 2 2021   Updated: 15:50 ET, Nov 2 2021

THIS is the harrowing moment an Afghan dad was forced to sell his nine-year-old daughter as a child bride so he could buy food for his family.

Parwana Malik was sold to Qorban, 55, who she described as an “old man” because of his white beard and eyebrows.

3

Qorban (right) grabs hold of his new nine-year-old bride after he paid her father (left) 

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The girl dragged her feet as she was escorted away from her home in Afghanistan

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Parwana was sold to the 55-year-old man so her family could buy food 

As the man was leading her away, Parwana’s dad Abdul Malik pleaded with him not to hurt his child.

Abdul broke down in tears as he told Qorban: “This is your bride. Please take care of her. You are responsible now, please don’t beat her,” according to a CNN report.

Parwana’s family said they had no choice in selling their daughter and are just one of many families in Afghanistan who are destitute and are forced to sell their young daughters into marriage so they can survive.

The Malik family have been living in an Afghan displacement camp in the north western Badghis province and have been surviving on humanitarian aid and earning a meagre living doing menial work.

 

The situation though deteriorated following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August and the virtual collapse of the country’s economy.

Abdul was forced to sell Parwana’s 12-year-old sister months ago in order to help his family survive.

 

link  :  https://www.the-sun.com/news/3984348/afghan-dad-sell-daughter-child-bride-food/

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Hunger forces Afghans to sell young daughters into marriage

“These child marriages are due to economic problems, not any rule imposed by the Sharia,” says senior Taliban official.

AFPUpdated 27 Oct, 2021 02:31am

Fahima has wept many times since her husband sold their two young daughters into marriage to survive the drought gripping western Afghanistan.

Oblivious to the deal, six-year-old Faristeh and 18-month-old Shokriya sit by her side in a mud-brick and tarpaulin shelter for displaced people.

“My husband said if we don't give away our daughters, we will all die because we don't have anything to eat,” Fahima said of the choice now facing thousands of Afghan families.

“I feel bad giving away my daughters for money.” The oldest commanded a bride price of $3,350 and the toddler $2,800 — to be paid in instalments over several years until the time comes to join their new families, their future husbands still minors themselves.

Child marriage has been practised in Afghanistan for centuries, but war and climate change-related poverty have driven many families to resort to striking deals earlier and earlier in girls' lives.

This Oct 14 picture shows children Farishteh (R) and Shokriya (2L) which were recently sold to the families of their future husbands, sitting with their father outside a tent at the Shamal Darya Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province. — AFP

 

Boys' parents can drive a harder bargain and secure younger girls, spacing out the repayments.

The World Food Program warned on Monday that more than half the population of Afghanistan, around 22.8 million people, will face acute food insecurity from November.

In Qala-i-Naw, capital of the western province of Badghis — one of the regions worst affected by the drought — there is shame and grief.

Village and displaced people's camp leaders say the numbers of young girls getting betrothed started to rise during a 2018 famine and surged this year when the rains failed once more.

Among farmers driven from their homes, AFP journalists quickly found more than a dozen families who felt forced to sell their daughters into marriage.

Grocery debt

Fahima's 25-year-old neighbour in the camp, Sabehreh, ran up a bill at a grocer's shop to feed her family. The business owner warned that they would be jailed if they could not repay him.

This Oct 14 picture shows Sabehreh (R) with her daughter Zakereh, who is betrothed to the grocer's four-year-old son to cover the family's debt, sitting at the Zaimat IDP camp in Badghis Province. — AFP

 

To cover the debt, the family agreed that their three-year-old daughter, Zakereh, would be betrothed to the grocer's four-year-old son, Zabiuallah.

The infants are ignorant of their future fate, the shopkeeper having elected to wait until the pair are older before taking charge of the girl's upkeep.

“I'm not happy to have done that, but we had nothing to eat or drink,” Sabehreh told AFP.

“If this continues, we'll have to give up our three-month-old,” she said, sitting by the iron cradle holding the sleeping infant, as the first chills of winter penetrated the bleak camp.

Another neighbour, Gul Bibi, confirmed that many families in the camp had resorted to child marriage.

Her own daughter Asho, aged eight or nine, is betrothed to a 23-year-old man to whose family Gul Bibi was indebted. The young man is away in nearby Iran, and she dreads the day of his return.

This Oct 14 picture shows Asho (R), a little girl betrothed to a 23-year-old man to whose family was indebted, sitting outside a tent at the Shamal Darya IDP camp in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province. — AFP

 

“We know it's not right, but we don't have the choice,” commented Hayatullah, a passer-by who overheard the mother's sad tale.

'Never seen them since'

In another Qala-i-Naw camp, Mohammad Assan wiped back his tears as he showed AFP photos of his girls, Siana, nine, and Edi Gul, six, now living far away with their young grooms.

“We've never seen them since,” he said. “We didn't want to do that, but we had to feed our other children.”

Like many others, Assan and his family sought shelter in the temporary camp during the fierce fighting in recent years as the now victorious Taliban clawed back control of the country from the US-backed government.

“My daughters are surely better off over there, with food to eat,” he reasoned, trying to console himself as he showed AFP the crusts of bread his neighbours spared for him.

Assan's wife is sick and he has medical bills to pay, so he has already begun looking for a suitor for his remaining four-year-old daughter.

“Some days I go crazy,” his wife Dad Gul said, “I leave the tent and I don't really know where I'm going.”

The mothers' grief is long and open-ended: the hard decision to bargain away a child, the months or years waiting for her departure, then the pain of separation.

This Oct 17 picture shows Habibeh, a girl, carrying a jerrycan filled with water near tents at the Zaimat IDP camp in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province.

 

Rabia, a 43-year-old widow, has done everything to push back the fateful day.

Her daughter, Habibeh, has turned 12 and should have gone to join her future spouse's family a month ago, but she begged them for another year together.

“I want to stay with my mother,” whispered the skinny child.

Rabia would refund the 550 dollars she received for Habibeh's hand if she could afford to feed the rest of her family.

'Save my sons'

Her 11-year-old boy earns 50 cents a day working for a baker, her nine-year-old picks up trash for 30.

The children are black with filth, living in a ragged tent. It will be a hard winter.

“As a mother, my heart is broken, but I have to save my sons,” she explained.

This picture taken on Oct 17, 2021 shows Abdul Rahim Akbar, camp elder of the IDP camp speaking during an interview with AFP in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province.

 

Camp elder Abdul Rahim Akbar does what he can to save his neighbours from having to make the awful choice, distributing a small ration of bread to the poorest families.

He has seen many fathers sell their daughters, including his own brother.

He has even been to see the area's new Taliban authorities to seek their assistance.

The Taliban's interim governor for Badghis province, Maulvi Abdul Sattar, told AFP: “These child marriages are due to economic problems, not to any rule imposed by the Islamic emirate, or the Sharia.”

Even in camps outside drought-hit Badghis, child marriage is growing.

Outside Herat, the country's third-biggest city, fathers have to harden their hearts.

This picture taken on October 17, 2021 shows men sitting at an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province. — AFP

 

“I sold my 10-year-old girl. I never would have done it if I had the choice,” said landless farmer Allahudin, admitting that if he could find a taker he'd also sell his five-year-old.

But behind the blunt talk, there is grief and shame at their failure to provide for their families and keep them together.

“I know it's not good,” said Baz Mohammad, “But I thought we were all going to die. “

---

Header image: The Oct 17, 2021 picture shows Habibeh (L), a girl which lives with her mother Rabia (R) but should have gone to join her future spouse's family a month ago, sitting inside a tent at the Zaimat Internally Displaced People camp in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis Province. — AFP

 

link  :  https://www.dawn.com/news/1654162

 

 

 

[md11fr8dawg]

Your imagination does NOT extend far enough to know what I would do to this goat humping diaperhead if I could. What an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!! These radical islamists and their take on their religion/cult should be eliminated from the face of the earth.

[jg1]

37 minutes ago, md11fr8dawg said:

Your imagination does NOT extend far enough to know what I would do to this goat humping diaperhead if I could. What an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!! These radical islamists and their take on their religion/cult should be eliminated from the face of the earth.

Unfortunately, the middle east countries just like others that have fled theirs to come to ours want to change ours to what they have fled from. Middle easterners think we have too much freedoms and don't like the fact that woman have too many rights, that we live to lavishly. They want to come here and bring their culture with them and not integrate, not interracialy intergrate and dominate. Most of the other poor countries like the freebies which sucks you into socialism/ Communism. Most just want to be leaches, when they are full, they drop off and return to their home countries and live well whilst the American struggles to ever retire. Many have dual citizenship, they dont have alegence to Our country like we do. And our country welcomes it all with our bleeding hearts.

We are doomed.