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

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

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

But Parwana’s laughter ceases when she returns home, a small hut with mud walls, in which she is reminded of her fate: She is sold to a stranger as a child’s bride.

The man who plans to buy Parwana says he is 55 but to her he is “an old man” with white eyebrows and a thick white beard, she told CNN on October 22nd.

But their parents say they have no choice.

Her family has lived in an Afghan displacement camp in the north-western province of Badghis for four years, lives on humanitarian aid and relief work and earns a few dollars a day. But life has only gotten more difficult since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan on August 15.

As international aid dries up and the country’s economy collapses, they can no longer afford basic needs such as food. Your father has already sold them 12 year old sister a few months ago.

Parwana is one of many young Afghan girls sold into marriage as the country’s humanitarian crisis deepens. Hunger has led 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 on their own.

“The number of families selling their children is increasing every day,” said Mohammad Naiem Nazem, a human rights activist in Badghis. “Lack of food, lack of work, families feel that this is what they have to do.”

An impossible choice

Abdul Malik, Parwana’s father, cannot sleep at night. Prior to the sale, he told CNN that he was “broken” with guilt, shame and worry.

He had tried not to sell them – he traveled to the provincial capital of Qala-e-Naw to look for work unsuccessfully, even borrowed “lots of money” from relatives, and his wife begged other camp residents for food.

But he felt he had no other choice if he wanted to support his family.

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

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

Parwana said she hopes to change her parents’ minds – she dreamed of becoming a teacher and does not want to give up her education. But their requests were in vain.

Buyer Qorban, who has only one name, arrived at her home on October 24th and gave Parwana’s father 200,000 Afghanis (approx. 2,200 US dollars) in the form of sheep, land and cash.

Describing the sale as not a marriage, Qorban said he already had a wife who would take care of Parwana as if she were one of her own children.

“(Parwana) was cheap and her father was very poor and needed money,” said Qorban. “She will work at my home. I will not hit her. I will treat you like family. I will be kind. “

Parwana, who wore a black headdress with a brightly colored flower garland around her neck, hid her face and whimpered when her crying father said to Qorban: “This is your bride. Please take care of them – you are responsible for them now, please do not hit them. “

Qorban agreed, then grabbed Parwana’s arm and led her out the door. As they left, while her father was watching from the door, Parwana dug her feet in the dirt and tried to pull back – but it was no use. She was dragged to the waiting car, which slowly drove away.

“Absolutely catastrophic”

Since the Taliban came to power, stories like Parwana’s have been on the rise.

Although marriage to children under the age of 15 is illegal across the country, it has been the practice for years, especially in more rural parts of Afghanistan. And it has only spread since August, fueled by widespread hunger and despair.

More than half of the population suffer from acute food insecurity, according to a United Nations report released this week. And more than 3 million children under the age of 5 will be at risk of acute malnutrition in the coming months. Meanwhile, food prices soar, banks run out of money, and workers go unpaid.

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

“It’s utterly disastrous,” said Heather Barr, assistant director, women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. “We don’t have months or weeks to contain this emergency … we are already in need.”

The problem is particularly acute for Afghan girls who have stayed at home since the Taliban took over and see their brothers return to secondary school. The Taliban said they are working on a plan to allow girls to return as well, but have not said when this could happen or what conditions could be imposed.

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

“As long as a girl is in school, her family is investing in her future,” said Barr of Human Rights Watch. “As soon as a girl drops out of school, it suddenly becomes much more likely that she will be married.”

And as soon as a girl is sold as a bride, her chances of further education or an independent path are almost zero.

Instead, it faces a much darker future. Without access to contraception or reproductive health services, nearly 10% of Afghan girls between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth each year, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Many are too young to consent to intercourse and face complications during childbirth due to their underdeveloped bodies – the pregnancy-related mortality rate in girls aged 15-19 is more than double that of women aged 20, according to UNFPA up to 24 years.

“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 pay off her family’s debts. Her parents borrowed 200,000 Afghanis ($ 2,200) from a neighbor in their village – but with no work or savings, they have no way of returning the money.

The buyer had dragged Magul’s father Ibrahim to a Taliban prison and threatened him with a prison term for failing to repay his debts. Ibrahim, who has only one name, said he had promised the buyer that he would pay in a month. But now the time is up.

“I don’t know what to do,” said Ibrahim. “Even if I don’t give him my daughters, he’ll take them.”

Magul’s mother, Gul Afroz, feels just as helpless. “I pray to God these bad days will pass,” she said.

Like Qorban, the buyer claimed that he would not mistreat Magul and that she would simply help cook and clean his home. But the assurances sound hollow in light of his threats against Magul’s family.

“I really don’t want him. If they make me go, I’ll kill myself, ”Magul said, sobbing as she sat down on the floor of her house. “I don’t want to leave my parents.”

The situation is similar with a family of nine in the province of Ghor, who sells two daughters aged 4 and 9. The father does not have a job, like most in the displacement camp – but he is confronted even more severely with a disability.

He is willing to sell the girls for 100,000 Afghans (about $ 1,100) each. Zaiton, the 4-year-old with delicate bangs and big brown eyes, said she knew why this happened: “Because we are a poor family and we have nothing to eat.”

Your grandmother Rokhshana is desperate.

“If we have food and there is someone to help us, we would never do that,” said Rokhshana tearfully. “We have no choice.”

International funding has dried up

Local Taliban leaders in Badghis say they plan to distribute food to prevent families from selling their daughters. “As soon as we have implemented this plan and they sell their children on, we will put them in prison,” said Mawlawai Jalaludin, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Justice Department, without elaborating on it.

But the problem goes beyond badghis. And as winter approaches, both the Taliban and humanitarian groups plead for more aid in the hope that it could stem the rise in child marriage.

The Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the United States and its allies caused the international community to end aid – money that was vital to sustaining the country’s economy and essential services.

Countries and multilateral institutions are reluctant to renew their pledges for fear of legitimizing the Taliban as the leader of Afghanistan.

With the country’s economy on the verge of collapse, UN donors pledged more than $ 1 billion in humanitarian aid in September, of which $ 606 million would meet the most urgent needs of Afghans. However, according to a UNOCHA spokesman, less than half of the funds pledged have been received, with some member states not yet paying.

Several of CNN’s families and experts spoke with expressed frustration at the lack of help at the worst hour in the country.

Isabelle Moussard Carlsen, office manager at UNOCHA, emphasized that humanitarian workers are still on site, providing aid and supporting hospitals – but that is not enough.

“By not releasing the (development) money they hold from the Taliban government, it is the weak, the poor, it is these young girls who are suffering,” said Carlsen.

Barr and Carlsen recognized that world leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for human rights abuses – but they warned that the longer Afghanistan goes without development aid or injected liquidity, the more families are starving and the more girls are likely to be sold .

The Taliban have also asked for help. “The Taliban are asking aid organizations to return to Afghanistan and help these people,” said a Taliban director of an internal displacement camp in Ghor province. “I ask the international community and aid agencies to come and help before winter comes.”

Back in the Afghan displacement camp in Badghis province, Malik has no illusions about what the sale means for his daughter – or what the dire situation means for his family’s future.

Qorban said he will use his daughter as a worker rather than a bride, but Malik knows he has no control over what happens to her now.

“The old man said to me, ‘I’m paying for the girl. It’s none of your business what I do to her… that’s my business, ‘”Malik told CNN.

The ominous warning weighs heavily on him as he thinks of the dark days. The cold is creeping in and snow has already started to cover parts of the country. When the money from Parwana’s sale runs out, he will be back in first place – with three daughters and a son who is still at home to feed him.

“I see we have no future – our future is destroyed,” he said. “I’ll have to sell another daughter if my financial situation doesn’t improve – probably the two-year-old.”

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