In Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province正规的股票配资平台, a heartbreaking case emerged where a six-year-old girl was “married off” by her father in exchange for money to a 45-year-old man who already had two wives. According to a comprehensive report from Afghan media and the Daily Mail on July 7, this transactional marriage sparked immediate intervention from the Taliban authorities. They arrested those involved and decreed that the man must wait until the girl turns nine years old before he can officially bring her home. Yet, this so-called “nine-year agreement” remains a terrifying nightmare for a child still very much in her early childhood.
展开剩余87%1. The Despair Behind Deprived Education
In recent years, child marriage has become a persistent issue in Afghanistan. A 2024 report from the United Nations Women’s Agency highlighted how, under Taliban rule, the space for women to live freely has been drastically reduced to near nonexistence. Girls have been banned from attending primary school, effectively cutting them off from any formal education. Female teachers have been dismissed, and public spaces such as parks, gyms, and mosques are closed to women. Even within their own homes, women are forbidden to speak loudly, lest they “tempt others.” Shockingly, nearly one-fifth of Afghan women reported not speaking to any women outside their families in the past three months.
This severe educational deprivation directly fuels the rise in forced early marriages. Currently, Afghanistan has seen a 25% increase in child marriage rates, alongside a staggering 45% jump in child births. The same year the Taliban regained power, a nine-year-old girl named Parwana Malik was exchanged by her father for land valued at approximately ￡1,600, along with livestock and cash, to a 55-year-old stranger. Before her forced marriage, Parwana cried and pleaded with her father to allow her to continue school and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. However, poverty ultimately crushed her hopes.
Parwana’s father, Abdul, confessed that he suffered sleepless nights haunted by guilt. Only months earlier, he had married off his 12-year-old daughter due to similar financial desperation. The transaction sparked outrage internationally, prompting the US nonprofit “Too Young to Wed” to intervene. They successfully rescued Parwana and her family, relocating them to a secure shelter in Herat, far from the hardship of living in tents. Around the same time, 24 female senators in the US Senate jointly urged then-President Biden to take action against child marriage in Afghanistan. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, in a poignant interview, called for global attention to Afghan women’s plight, emphasizing that Taliban oppression of women had reached a level of systemic gender segregation. She described this persecution as exceeding the scope of any crime currently defined under international law.
Yet in Afghanistan, it is not only young girls who suffer. Boys too face a grim fate.
2. The Dark Reality for Boys
In some Afghan regions, a brutal custom known as “Bacha Bazi” persists. Young boys are dressed up in colorful female clothing and made to perform dances at parties, where they become the object of exploitation by powerful men. While Taliban officials publicly denounce this practice, in reality, it continues under the radar, treated as an unspoken “privilege” among certain elite circles.
A 2015 investigation by The New York Times revealed widespread sexual abuse of children by senior commanders within Afghan pro-government forces—a fact that had become an open secret within US military circles. A report from the UK highlighted that many boys remain vulnerable to severe sexual exploitation, but the stigma and fear prevent most cases from being reported, especially since many abusers are law enforcement officers themselves.
Survivors recount horrific experiences of physical abuse and psychological torment during their ordeals. When boys reach puberty and grow facial hair, no longer deemed desirable, they are often discarded mercilessly. This abandonment drives many victims toward desperate and dangerous paths in life.
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