When Parwana Malik was nine years old, her father sold her as a bride to a man in his fifties who was in dire need of money to support his family.
Abdul Malik begged the groom to be merciful to his young daughter, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“This is your bride.” Please look after her. He said, “Please don’t beat her; you are now responsible.”
Parwana is one of the millions of girls in impoverished Afghanistan who are coerced into child marriage; in order to make ends meet, desperate families have even sold their newborn children.
According to reliable sources, families were offering daughters as young as 20 days old for future marriage in exchange for a dowry, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef in late 2021.
Additionally, the Taliban last week officially recognized child marriage under a new law that lays out precise guidelines for “virgin girls,” a practice that is prohibited by the majority of countries worldwide.
According to the law, an arranged marriage involving a kid is lawful as long as the spouse is socially compatible and the dowry is suitable. The child may later request annulment after reaching puberty, but only with a court order.
Additionally, the document states that a “virgin girl’s” silence is considered consent to marriage, while a male or a woman who has already been married does not.
Additionally, the new law runs the potential of trapping many females in Afghanistan, where women and girls are reluctant to speak out for fear of punishment.
Nine-year-old Parwana Malik was sold by her parents to a stranger, whom she refers to as a “old man” because of his white eyebrows and beard.
The “old man” to whom Parwana has been sold takes her away while her mother (right) and father (far left) look on.
Unfortunately, selling children to older men in exchange for money has become a common response to Afghanistan’s growing poverty; this trend is predicted to increase as the country’s economic crisis gets worse.
Remarkably, three out of four people struggle to meet their basic requirements on a daily basis. Aid that used to come in from all around the world is now drying up, unemployment is high, and healthcare systems are having difficulty.
The United States, which was once Afghanistan’s largest donor, has reduced almost all funding to the country, making it perhaps the most drastic drop.
Afghanistan now receives less than 70% of the aid it received last year, according to the UN, and other nations, including the UK, have followed suit.
In a recent BBC program, dads acknowledged that they had sell their young daughters in order to pay for food, highlighting the fact that women are disproportionately suffering from the escalating humanitarian situation.
Abdul Rashid Azimi, a resident of Afghanistan’s Ghor region, told the BBC that he was obliged to make this horrible decision because of the dire economic conditions in his own country, which is currently under Taliban rule.
“I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed, and confused,” he added. “Baba, give us some bread” is how my kids approach me. What can I provide, though? “Where’s the work?”
He said that he needed to sell one of his two seven-year-old twins, either Roqia or Rohila, since he is so in need of money. “If I sell one daughter, I could feed the rest of my children for at least four years,” he added. Although it pains me, there is no other option.
This is hardly the only man acting in such a desperate manner. Saeed Ahmad claimed that after Shaiqua, his five-year-old daughter, developed appendicitis and a liver cyst, he had already sold her.
“I didn’t have enough money to cover the medical costs.” He said, “So I sold my daughter to a relative.”
The Taliban implemented a new penal code in February of this year, establishing a caste system that treats women like “slaves.”
As long as there is no significant physical harm, husbands are allowed to beat their spouses under the new rule.
Due to this law, younger brides are at risk of severe violence from older, more powerful males.
In the tragic instance of Parwana, which CNN reported, her father Abdul sold her to a man named Qorban so the family could afford to buy food.
Abdul sobbed as he pleaded with the buyer not to hit his daughter, claiming to be “broken” with guilt.
“My father has sold me because we don’t have bread, rice, or flour,” Parwana told CNN, her tiny face showing through her pale pink hijab. He sold me to an elderly man.
In order to support his family, Abdul had already sold Parwana’s 12-year-old sister.
Noqra Gul, an eight-year-old Afghan girl, is being sold by her father, Abdul
We are eight family members. Abdul Rashid Azimi (center) is getting ready to sell one of his two daughters, Roqia (left) and Rohila (right). He told the news source, “I have to sell to keep other family members alive.”
“[Parwana] was cheap, and her father was very poor and he needs money,” Qorban declared, adding that he already had a wife and would take care of Parwana as his child. “She will be working in my home,” he added. I’m not going to defeat her. She will be treated like a member of my family. I’ll be considerate.
However, Abdul stated that he has no control over his daughter’s future and recalled: “The old man informed me, “I’m paying for the girl.” What I’m doing with her is my business, not yours.”
The kid’s mother and siblings were relocated from their camp to a safe house in Herat after the tale caused international outrage. This was the first time they had ever lived in a real home after living in tents. Too Young to Wed, a US-based charity, helped remove the youngster from the cruel arrangement.
Following a backlash within his own community, Qorban was also compelled to go into hiding.
Not all children are as fortunate, though, as stories of impoverished parents promising their daughters future marriages in exchange for dowries have also surfaced. “Hearing these stories paralyses (my) heart.” It’s not a union. Prominent Afghan women’s rights activist Wazhma Frogh declared, “It’s child rape.”
Although it was unclear whether young girls would be coerced into having sex before reaching puberty, she claimed to hear about occurrences every day, frequently involving kids under the age of 10.
Ironically, the Taliban detained two guys last year who were trying to sell a six-year-old daughter to a forty-five-year-old man.
According to local media, they had the prospective groom wait until the girl turned nine before he could take her home, but no charges were filed against them.
Since taking back power, the Taliban have severely restricted women’s employment and mobility and prohibited females from continuing their education above the sixth grade.
Sexual and psychological abuse against women is neither condemned nor outlawed by the new penal code that was implemented in February.
The rule also prohibits women from fleeing domestic abuse by taking sanctuary with their family.
A woman who frequently visits her father’s or other relatives’ homes without her husband’s consent and “does not return home despite her husband’s request” faces three months in prison, according to Article 34 of the code.
Her relatives and family will also be punished.
A 52-year-old man purchased seven-year-old Zohra for 170,000 Afghanis, or £1,386.
Although girls continue to be the predominant victims of this exploitation, young boys have also been subjected to the brutality of the Taliban administration; many of them have been sexually exploited by older men and made into sex slaves for the elite.
Young boys and teenagers are sent before groups of powerful men to dance and entertain while wearing vividly colored women’s attire and cosmetics as part of the barbaric “Bacha Bazi” tradition.
Bacha Bazi, which means “boy play,” has been around for generations. Although the present Taliban government in Afghanistan claims to be against it, the practice is being practiced in secret.
According to a November 2024 report, boys are still at a significant risk of being exploited for commercial sex through Bacha Bazi and “are frequently underreported due to stigma and fear, particularly when perpetrators are police.”
The UK government assessment stated, “Despite the Taliban’s public stance against the practice, reports suggest it remains prevalent and largely unaddressed.”
Survivors who have managed to flee describe being beaten, raped, and subjected to psychological abuse, only to be expelled once they develop facial hair and are deemed undesirable.
Unable to escape the pain they have experienced, many turn to prostitution, drug addiction, or suicide.
Many boys are sold into this life by their own poor families who are struggling to make ends meet, even if some are said to volunteer.
Others, including police personnel who are meant to stop Bacha Bazi from resurfacing, are simply kidnapped.
