Poverty Leads to Child Marriage in Afghanistan’s Ghur Province in Exchange For Money, Weapons

The buying and selling rate of an underage girl is usually between 100,000 and 250,000 Afghanis in the province.

New Delhi: Poverty, unemployment, and severe economic problems in Ghur province of Afghanistan have led to child marriages, and a number of families are letting their underage girls marry middle-aged men in exchange for money, weapons, or livestock, as reported by the news agency Raha Press.

The report stated that some shocking stories have come to limelight where families have sold their one-year-old daughters for money, livestock, and weapons. The buying and selling rate of an underage girl is usually between 100,000 and 250,000 Afghanis in the province.

According to reports, if the buyer does not have cash, then he will give the girl’s family weapons or livestock in return. As per the report, these incidents occur more in the remote districts of the province than in the national capital.

Buying and selling of girls or child marriage in exchange for money were common before, but after the fall of the Afghanistan government and the ensuing economic turmoil, more families are forced to take this route.

Habiba Jamshidi, a women’s rights activist in the west of the country, said women form half of the society’s population and they should not be treated inhumanely or in a non-Islamic manner. Jamshidi added that the families that are ignorant about girl’s and women’s statutes, abuse them.

Jamshidi emphasised that one of the reasons of child marriage is the lack of proper awareness of the role and position of women, the report added. Taliban officials in Ghor province have refused to comment on the issue.

(With Inputs From IANS)