Girls As Young As 20 Days Being Offered For Marriage In War-Torn Afghanistan: Unicef

Desperate families in poverty-stricken Afghanistan are offering daughters as young as 20 days of age for future marriage in return for a dowry, said a Unicef official.

A statement by Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore said on Nov. 13 that she was "deeply concerned by reports that child marriage in Afghanistan is on the rise."

"We have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old up for future marriage in return for a dowry. Even before the latest political instability, UNICEF’s partners registered 183 child marriages and 10 cases of selling of children over 2018 and 2019 in Herat and Baghdis provinces alone. The children were between 6 months and 17 years of age," said Fore in the statement that appeared on Unicef's website.

According to Unicef, 28 percent of Afghan women aged 15–49 years were married before 18.

The organization thinks the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing food crisis and the onset of winter have further worsened the situation. Reports that came in 2020 said over half the population in Afghanistan were so poor and lacked nutrition or clean water.

The Unicef statement said the "extremely dire" economic situation is pushing families deeper into poverty and forcing them to make desperate choices, such as putting children to work and marrying girls off at a young age.

"As most teenage girls are still not allowed to go back to school, the risk of child marriage is now even higher. Education is often the best protection against negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and child labor," Fore added in the statement.

The organization also mentioned the efforts it was taking in Afghanistan to make people aware of the risks of child marriage.

"Child marriage can lead to a lifetime of suffering. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to experience domestic violence, discrimination, abuse, and poor mental health," Fore added.

The organization was also working with religious leaders to ensure that they are not involved in the "Nekah" (the marriage contract) for young girls.

The statement also urges authorities to reopen schools for girls and allow all-female teachers to resume their jobs.

Earlier, there were reports from Afghanistan about how poor parents had to sell their 9-year-old daughter in Badghis province as a child bride to a stranger six times her age so her family could afford food.

Parwana Malik was sold to a 55-year-old man — identified only as Qorban — on Oct. 24 for 200,000 Afghanis (about $2,200) in the form of sheep, land and cash. Her 12-year-old sister suffered the same fate when she was sold several months ago.