Afghan has to sell daughter to survive: “Otherwise we would all starve”

Disgraceful conditions in Afghanistan: Mamareen even had to sell her daughter to feed her two other children. The Afghan woman is by no means the only one who sees no way out, CNN reports. The UN estimates that more than 275,000 people have been displaced by the extreme drought in the country.

The big culprit in this case is the climate. Over the course of four years, too little precipitation has occurred. As a result, opium production has now fallen by a third, for example. No more plants grow and the animals die from the drought. Several families can no longer give their children food and see no other option to survive than to sell one of their children.

“She does not know what to expect yet”

CNN went to talk to Mamareen in a refugee camp near Herat. She lost her husband in the war, now she also loses her daughter Akila (6). “Because of the drought, I had to flee from my village with my three children. I thought I would be helped here, but I got nothing at all. To prevent us all starving, I sold my daughter for $3,000. So far, however, I have only received 70 dollars”

“She does not know what to expect yet. She cannot realize it either, she is still a child. Nobody sells a piece of his heart with pleasure, but I had no choice.”

“Paid off within three years”

The buyer was in the same refugee camp. Najmuddin is planning to later marry the girl to his son Sher Agha. For him the deal is part of the culture, although he wanted to show his good heart.

“Her family had nothing to eat, they were very hungry. I am also poor, but I am sure that I will be able to pay that amount. This will certainly work within two or three years.”

These are children, the cameraman still tried. “That does not matter, such things happen here”, was the answer. “No one will even be shocked when an old man gets married in the marriage boat with a young girl.”

Debts

Najmuddin was also the victim of the drought, there in the west of Afghanistan. “We could no longer grow melons and the other harvests were disappointing. The sheep, cows and goats died of hunger, and there was no food for them, of course.”

A man later on sold his four-year-old daughter to a grown-up man of twenty years. “I had no choice, I have no money and no income. In order to pay my debts, I had to give up my daughter.”