If you think humanity has already seen the worst, then Afghanistan is your reason to think twice.
An Afghan father, Saeed Ahmad, was forced to sell his five-year-old daughter for food in the Ghor province of Afghanistan. And that’s not just one story; Afghanistan’s current scenario is enough to send chills down the strongest hearts.
What’s Happening In Afghanistan Today?
As per a report by the BBC, Afghanistan is currently witnessing acute poverty and hunger. Families are struggling to survive soaring unemployment and food shortages. As per the World Food Programme (WFP), about five million mothers and children are currently stricken by extreme malnutrition across Afghanistan.
According to the United Nations, three in every four people in the country are failing to meet their everyday necessities. An estimated 4.7 million people, which makes up over 10 per cent of the country’s total population, are currently sitting on the brink of famine.
Reflecting on the severity of the situation, a 45-year-old, Juma Khan, explained to the BBC, “My children went to bed hungry three nights in a row. My wife was crying, so were my children. So I begged a neighbour for some money to buy flour.”
Another man, Khwaja Ahmad, sobbed as he said, “We are starving. My older children died, so I need to work to feed my family. But I’m old, so no one wants to give me work.” The problem is so acute that several families have already lost their loved ones to the shackles of malnutrition and poverty.
Amidst this situation, families in the Ghor province of Afghanistan are finding themselves making heart-wrenching choices to somehow survive the crisis.
Children Being Sold To Survive
The BBC’s report has brought out the horrors that Afghanistan is currently witnessing, where fathers are choosing to sell off their daughters for money rather than let them die out of hunger and starvation.
Holding onto his seven-year-old daughters, Roqia and Rohila, Abdul Rashid Azimi explains how he is willing to sell them off for money. He says, “I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying, ‘Baba, give us some bread’. But what can I give? Where is the work?”
“If I sell one daughter, I could feed the rest of my children for at least four years,” he concludes.
Saeed Ahmad, another Afghan, reveals that he already sold his five-year-old daughter, Shaiqa, off to one of his relatives for 200,000 Afghani (about $3,200 or Rs. 309,451), after she got diagnosed with appendicitis and a liver cyst.
Explaining his situation, Ahmad said, “If I had taken the whole sum at that time, he would have taken her away. So I told him, just give me enough for her treatment now, and in the next five years, you can give me the rest, after which you can take her. She will become his daughter-in-law.”
Further, the BBC quotes Ahmad, “Giving away your child at such a young age carries a lot of anxiety. Underage [marriages] have their problems; however, because I couldn’t pay for her treatment, I was thinking, at least she will be alive.”
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How Afghanistan Treats Its Daughters
The reason daughters are chosen to be sold over sons is that, till today, sons are seen as the future bread earners of the family. That, along with Afghanistan’s restrictions on women, makes daughters the immediate prey of these anomalies.
Another example of Afghanistan’s stance on women is that the Taliban government recently introduced the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada-approved decree of law called “Principles of Separation Between Spouses”, which contains 31 articles. The decree states that the silence of a virgin girl can be treated as consent for marriage. However, this law doesn’t apply to boys.
Ultimately, at the heart of all impoverishment lies how the Taliban-led government treats women. According to the Afghanistan Socioeconomic Review by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), about 56 per cent of Afghan women are usually home-bound, with mobility restricted to less than once a day.
This often proportionately results in limited access to food, work, and other necessities, as women are often trapped inside their houses. This, along with restrictions on education and healthcare training for women, is also a reason Afghanistan’s progress is being set backwards.
Reflecting on the Taliban’s rules, political commentator Fahima Mahomed told The New York Post, “Child marriage is not marriage in any meaningful sense. A child cannot properly consent, and treating silence as consent is dangerous because it removes a girl’s voice completely.”
Further, she explained, “As a Muslim, I would also strongly reject the idea that this reflects Islam as a whole. The Qur’an itself speaks against compulsion and mistreatment of women, so the Taliban’s position should not be presented as ‘Islamic law’ in a broad sense.”
The Politics Behind Afghanistan’s Crisis
Afghanistan’s worsening humanitarian well-being is also the result of declining aid from international powers. The United States, which was once one of Afghanistan’s top donors, has almost entirely eliminated humanitarian aid towards the country. As per UN records, the help received from the US in 2026 falls about 70 per cent short of the statistics in 2025.
While the country is already in the shackles of poverty and hunger, severe droughts are an add-on to Afghanistan’s growing miseries. Villagers reported to the BBC that neither NGOs nor the government stepped up to alleviate these problems.
The World Food Programme reported a need for about $350 million to carry out its assistance in Afghanistan, which is otherwise likely to see worse days in the coming times. While the reason for donors walking away is how the Taliban government runs the country, officials disregard the matter, stating, “humanitarian assistance should not be politicised”.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman of the Taliban government, which came into power in 2021, defended the government by placing the blame at the feet of previous administrations. “During the 20 years of invasion, an artificial economy was created due to the influx of US dollars. After the end of the invasion, we inherited poverty, hardship, unemployment and other problems.” he says.
What Afghanistan is facing today isn’t merely a poverty problem. Fathers selling daughters for food, or young girls getting shoved into marriages, are already horrors that society is witnessing. Each passing day is another impending horror waiting to unfold, as millions of families continue to struggle for their daily bread while being trapped under a system that has held them back.
Images: Google Images
Sources: BBC, The Times of India, Afghanistan International
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