‘We had nothing to eat or drink’: starving Afghans sell girls as young as three into marriage

Name: Thousands living in camps in Kabul plea for help as Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis grows
Uploaded: 2021-10-26T10:21:33.000Z
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: Thousands living in camps in Kabul plea for help as Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis grows

Village 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

‘I feel bad giving away my daughters for money,’ says a mother whose six-year-old child commanded a bride price of US$3,350

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Afghan mother Fahima with her children Faristeh (right) and Shokriya (centre) at a displaced people’s camp in Qala-i-Naw, Badghis .Photo: AFP

Agence France-Presse

Published: 6:21pm, 26 Oct 2021Updated: 1:43am, 2 May 2023

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 US$3,350 and the toddler US$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.

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Thousands living in camps in Kabul plea for help as Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis grows

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.