Poor Parents Sell 9-Year-Old Daughter For Marriage To 55-Year-Old Man In Afghanistan

A 9-year-old girl in Afghanistan's northwestern Badghis province was sold as a child bride to a stranger six times her age so her family could afford basic necessities like food — a practice that has reportedly become more frequent following the takeover of the Taliban in August.

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, CNN reported. Her 12-year-old sister suffered the same fate when she was sold several months ago, according to the outlet.

"This is your bride. Please take care of her. You are responsible for her now, please don't beat her," the two girls' father, Abdul Malik, told Qorban during the transaction.

The buyer said that the girl will work in his home and that he "will treat her like a family member."

Abdul claimed that he could not sleep and that he felt "broken" with guilt, shame and worry over the sale of his 9-year-old daughter. However, his family of eight became more and more unable to afford food and other basic necessities as his nation's economy collapsed and international aid dried up.

"I have to sell to keep other family members alive," Abdul was quoted as saying.

The girl's father agreed to the transaction after he failed to find work in the province's capital of Qala-e-Naw and borrowed "lots of money" from relatives, while his wife resorted to begging for food from other residents in their displacement camp.

The money from Parwana's sale, however, will only sustain her family for a few months, and Abdul will have to find another solution by then, the father claimed.

Marrying off children under the age of 15 is illegal in Afghanistan, but it has been practiced in more rural parts of the country for years. It has only spread since August due to widespread hunger and desperation, according to CNN.

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

Around 22.8 million people in Afghanistan — or more than half of the nation's population — are facing acute food insecurity, a United Nations report released last week revealed. In the country, food prices are going up, banks are running out of money and workers are going unpaid.

Local Taliban leaders in Badghis said that they plan to distribute food to stop families from selling their daughters and that violators will be put in jail, but the problem reportedly stretched beyond the region.

Both the Taliban and humanitarian groups have pleaded for more aid in the hopes of alleviating the child marriage problem. Countries and multilateral institutions, however, have been reluctant to renew pledges for fear of appearing to legitimize the Taliban as Afghanistan's leaders.

UN Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs office head Isabelle Moussard Carlsen and Human Rights Watch women's rights division associate director Heather Barr acknowledged the need for world leaders to hold the Taliban accountable for their human rights violations. But they warned that more families face death by starvation and more girls are likely to be sold the longer Afghanistan goes without development assistance or injected liquidity.

"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.