A hole of four square meters for home. Mubarak lives with her husband and their four children in the middle of this pit dug in the ground. A tarp stretched over their shelter protects them from the scorching sun. The mother gazes at her son. The little boy, knocked down by a motorcycle a few months earlier, is disabled. It was for him that she made the decision to marry off her daughter, who was only 10 years old. “I want to use the money from the sale for my son”explains Mubarak, who hopes to obtain a dowry of around 4,500 euros.
“The husband we found for her is deaf but we have no choice. We have to sacrifice her to be able to take our son to see a doctor in Kabul or Pakistan.”
In Afghanistan, 70% of the population does not have enough to eat. The country, whose economy was devastated by forty years of war, was already living under the infusion of international aid. With the seizure of power by the Taliban a year ago, on August 15, 2021, this assistance ceased, causing Afghanistan to lose 40% of its GDP.
In the camps for displaced people in Qala-I-Now, the provincial capital of Badghis in the east of the country, families live in the greatest destitution and come to take unimaginable measures. A month ago, Rabia Aghamamat also gave her daughter Khassagou in marriage. She is only 12 years old. “The person we had borrowed money from asked us to pay them back every day. That’s why we gave our daughter to a man who is 40 years old. He had lent us 50,000 AfghanisRabia breathes. He told us: ‘If you don’t have money to pay me back, give me your daughter.’ Nobody in my house works, my husband is disabled and my son is only 10 years old.”
Rabia left her drought-stricken village four years ago, also fleeing fighting between the Taliban and government forces. Destitute, the family has sunk further into misery in recent months: “Rice and oil are very expensive. We have dinner once every ten days, otherwise we only eat bread with tea, and sometimes we sleep on an empty stomach. potable water.”
“I am not happy to have given my daughter in marriage, she is not ready to become pregnant or to take care of a house. I made this decision for my other children, because we was starving.”
Rabia Aghamamatat franceinfo
In Badghis, 90% of the population does not have enough to eat. More and more families are giving their little girls in marriage, hoping to obtain dowries that will enable them to survive, if only for a few months.
In Afghanistan, the forced marriage of little girls to survive. Report by Sonia Ghezali.
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