'I expect them to be beaten… at 14, they will be pregnant': Afghan parents sell off their daughters, two and five, for marriage because they 'had no choice'

An Afghan couple have tried to justify marrying off their daughters, two and five, for money by claiming they had 'no choice'. 

Gul Bobo, who lives in the rural village of Tayz Nāwah in northwest Afghanistan, said that increasingly frequent droughts have made her and her husband's lives far harder. 

These droughts have affected her husband's livelihood as a farmer. The money he makes is used to sustain the family, buy seeds to cultivate and rent a tractor or donkey to help work a wealthier man's land.  

She said that as a result of ever more unstable weather patterns her husband's work has been made far harder and they have had to sell their young daughters into marriage to make ends meet. 

Gul Bobo said: 'As a mother, I cried a lot, but I knew my husband had no choice.

'I know they are too young to be engaged but we had no choice – otherwise we would have waited until after 18.' 

She admitted that she does not see a hopeful future for her young children: 'I expect them to be beaten, but there is nothing I can do about it. And at 14, they will be pregnant.'

She said that the groom of her five-year-old child, Nazila, is 15 and that she will likely leave to live with him in the next two or three years.  

The couple live in the Badghis province, where 95 per cent of the population relies on rain-fed agriculture and livestock to sustain themselves, according to The Guardian. 

The whole region has been facing poor weather, leading to poor farming conditions for years. 2018 saw a historic drought, and since 2021 frequent water shortages have ruined crops and left livestock starving. 

This has led to many families selling off their children to repay debts, feed themselves or pay for medical treatment. 

Bana, the mother of 11-year-old Gulalai, told the newspaper that she has had to sell her young daughter to a shopkeeper in his late 40s as she and her husband owed him money: 'I would have preferred for her to be dead rather than be married off to such an old man.'

Her husband, Niaz Mohammad, meanwhile justified the decision to sell their 11-year-old daughter off: 'We have to sacrifice a family member to save the others.'

Many people in the Badghis chose to abandon their rural homes and move to cities in an attempt to find steady work. 

Some went to Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city, where the Shahrak-e-Sabz camp holds tens of thousands of displaced people from around the country. 

Many went in hopes of receiving humanitarian aid that has long since dried up.  

Perhaps the most stark cut comes from the US, a nation that was once the biggest donor to Afghanistan which has since slashed nearly all aid to the nation.

Other countries, like the UK, have also followed suit, and the UN says that Afghanistan now gets less than 70 per cent of the aid it did last year.

As a result, many end up selling their daughters into marriages. Mark Calder, advocacy director for Afghanistan at World Vision International, said of the practice: 'Early marriage exposes girls to potentially deadly health risks, but the clinics treating them are disappearing as aid is cut.' 

Darellah, 15, now lives with her 30-year-old husband Mollah after her family left their rural village in 2018. 

Now pregnant, she told The Guardian as she visited her family: 'I am still a child … it cannot be a good decision to be married at that age.'

Her sisters, nine-year-old Bibi Zat and Rahimah, 11, are engaged but still live with their parents. 

Those who stay in their villages face hardship. In Khoshkian, eight years of poor harvests forced Abdul Aziz to sell five of his daughters into marriages for between 90,000 and 150,000 afghanis (£1,000-£1,750) to pay off debts. 

Mazari, one of his daughters, left home at either 12 or 13. Now she is 16 or 17 and living with her husband, in his 40s, their two-year-old son and a newborn baby.

She said: 'Getting married at 12 was really hard; when I came to his home, I wasn't able to cook, but my husband and in-laws have been really kind.'

Her younger sisters, aged between three and 13, will live at home until their bride prices are paid in full. 

Even in spite of the poverty they suffer, many try to stave off bride price payments from families who owe them money to spend as much time as possible with their children. 

Sara, who has lived in the city of Qala-e-Naw since she and her family fled droughts in 2021, was forced to sell her 12-year-old daughter Aisha to a 20-year-old to repay debts. 

The bride price has done little to help the family. Their rent of just 1,000 afghanis has not been paid in two months, resulting in the landlord kicking them out. 

When her last baby was born, Sara could not afford a lift to the hospital and had to walk there before giving birth. 

Despite this, Sara said: 'I try not to contact the in-laws to ask them for the rest of the bride price, so that Aisha will not have to leave.'

There is no law dictating the age a girl can leave home for marriage. Khomakha, 30, revealed her husband made a deal to marry off their two-year-old daughter Fatemah just three months after she was born. 

Their urgency was the result of not being able to afford the small fee for shared transport to take their eight-year-old son Ehsanullah – who suffers from blood cancer – to hospital for a weekly transfusion. 

Khomakha said her daughter's new home will be a 15-hour drive away, and as such she may never be able to see her daughter again once she leaves: 'I will not be able to afford transport to visit my daughter once she leaves.'