Hunger, Poverty Drive Afghan Families to Marry Off Young Daughters, Report Reveals Afghanistan is facing a surge in child marriages and underage pregnancies as families, grappling with deepening poverty and Taliban-imposed restrictions, resort to marrying off young daughters to settle debts and survive. A joint report by Zan Times and The Guardian highlights the grim reality of the situation, detailing how desperation has pushed thousands of families to exchange their daughters for financial relief or to secure their future. The report includes harrowing accounts of girls as young as two months old being promised in marriage, with families pledging to hand them over when they reach ages seven to nine. One such case is Sima, a 13-year-old girl who was forced to marry her cousin after her father pressured her following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Sima, who had completed only sixth grade, was subjected to intense emotional and physical coercion. “After the Taliban entered the country, I had just finished the sixth grade and was supposed to start the seventh. But two months later, my father pressured me immensely to marry my cousin. After being beaten by my father several times, I was forced to accept,” she recounted. Now 18, Sima has given birth four times in five years, with one child dying before reaching one year old. She now spends her days fetching water, tending cattle, and caring for her children while battling chronic illness. “I always have a headache. My kidneys ache. I feel like a 70-year-old person,” she said. Medical professionals interviewed for the report noted a sharp rise in teenage pregnancies, with one public hospital in northern Afghanistan reporting 42 girls under 18 giving birth during the first five months of 2026.#afghanistan #the_guardian #shabnam #zam_times #sim_a
‘When she turns eight they will take her’: rising number of Afghan girls being sold into child marriage Sima* is 18, but has already given birth four times. Her youngest is a newborn, the eldest is four. Sitting with her children in their mud-brick room in Badghis province, Sima says: “After the Taliban entered the country, I had just finished the sixth grade and was supposed to start the seventh. But two months later, my father pressured me immensely to marry my cousin. After being beaten by my father several times, I was forced to accept.” At 13, Sima became a bride inside the compound where she still lives, and where she has given birth to her children. One child died of pneumonia aged one. She does all the housework: fetching water, tending the cows, baking naan in a tandoor. All the while, her children cling to her legs, crying. Sima’s case is no longer exceptional. Interviews with workers at one public hospital in northern Afghanistan revealed that 42 underage girls gave birth in the first five months of this year. Six were in their second pregnancy. Five had ectopic pregnancies – a leading cause of maternal deaths – and 18 had caesarean sections. Two died, though their babies survived. They are victims of a growing trend toward child marriage, driven by Taliban policies legalising the practice and forcing girls out of school, combined with a deepening humanitarian crisis in which families are forced to sell their daughters to pay debts or buy food. As well as Sima’s family, the Guardian and Zan Times spoke to three other families with daughters under nine who were traded in marriage to settle debts. The youngest was two months old when she was promised as a bride, with all the families pledging to give the girls to their future husbands when they reached between seven and nine years old.#taliban #afghanistan #badghis_province #shabnam #afghanistan_human_rights_center
