Since the Taliban’s return to power, the risk of child marriage has increased exponentially. This is what that means for girls.
On December 31, the Associated Press reported that Aziz Gul, an Afghan woman, was fighting to raise funds for a divorce for her 10-year-old child. “My heart stopped beating,” she said, describing the moment she discovered the marriage. “I wished I could have died.” Aziz’s husband had sacrificed their daughter to secure enough money to feed their other five children.
Since the Taliban’s return to power last summer, the risk of child marriage in Afghanistan has increased exponentially. The national minimum age for marriage in Afghanistan is 16 for girls — much lower than the internationally recommended standard of 18. Nevertheless, it’s horrifyingly commonplace for children far younger than that to be married off.
Elika Dadsetan-Foley of the nonprofit VISIONS has devoted decades of her life to humanitarian work, offering her vast insight into this appalling phenomenon. She shared some of her first-hand experience of the causes — and terrifying consequences — of child marriage with KCM.
Why is child marriage so prevalent in Afghanistan?
“Child marriages mainly happen in rural areas,” says Elika. “They occur for several reasons: to strengthen ties with rival tribes, to settle debts or disputes, or, as I saw most often, because the families needed the large dowries received by wealthy families.”
Desperate families marry off daughters they can no longer afford to support, and the husbands are nearly always far older than their young brides. Sometimes, two families agree to exchange female members to offset costs or strengthen relations — a practice called “Badal”. Another custom, “Baad,” sees girl brides offered as compensation to a victim’s family when a crime has been committed. According to the United Nations Population Fund, 35% of Afghan women aged 20-24 report they were married while still children.
“Often, the girls aren’t certain of their own age,” says Elika. “I remember one who we think was 6, and another who was 8. She wasn’t yet living with the new husbands’ family, but she was committed to him. Often not having hit puberty, the young girl is not as much of ‘use’ to the men to bear children. So they may get engaged very young, and get married closer to their early teens.”
Even babies just a few weeks old may be engaged in exchange for the promise of a dowry. But whether they’re infants or teenage girls, the brides, as well as their mothers, sisters, aunts, and other female relatives, don’t have any say over the union.
What are some of the immediate effects of child marriage?
Though it’s so often used as an emergency stopgap to cope with poverty, child marriage does nothing to stem the cycle of destitution. There’s a huge correlation between child marriage, illiteracy, and joblessness: “Almost 100% of child brides later report unemployment,” says Elika.
Child marriage also entails brutal physical risks to its victims. Nearly a tenth of Afghan females aged 15 to 19 give birth every year as a direct consequence of the practice. At this age, they’re more than twice as likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than they are if they give birth between the ages of 20-24 — and far more likely to suffer agonizing, life-altering injuries during labor, like obstetric fistula. These are all the more dangerous considering that a third of all women in Afghanistan don’t have access to even the most basic health care.
Despite the many perils of pregnancy and childbirth, there are much more prevalent dangers in a child bride’s life. In a 2015 survey, more than half of all married women and girls in Afghanistan said they’d experienced violence at the hands of their husband at least once within the previous 12 months.
How did the return of the Taliban affect child marriage?
The return of the Taliban spelled disaster for women in so many ways, and child marriage is just one. Regional customs in Afghanistan have habitually taken precedence over national law, and Sharia law, which the Taliban has promised to rule in accordance with, allows fathers and grandfathers to marry their children off. Two months after the Taliban returned, CNN reported that child marriages were on the rise.
To make matters worse, the regime change has almost certainly increased poverty.
“We ‘know’ that billions of dollars in assets were frozen, salaries and wages aren’t being paid, and banks are running out of money,” says Elika. “We’ve heard of the famine amongst the country’s poorest, and how it’s being exasperated during the cold winter.” In the past year, approximately half the population in Afghanistan could not afford clean water, power, and basic nutrition.
Since the Taliban’s return to power, teenage girls aren’t allowed to attend school, so the risk of child marriage is even higher. Without access to education, married girls remain dependent on their husbands, and often become responsible for several children.
How do the brides tend to feel about their fate?
“I have not met any girls who felt joy about the situation,” says Elika. “Some have shared their ‘understanding’ that it may have been a ‘necessity’. However, I did not meet anyone who felt like it was what they hoped for themself.”
Unsurprisingly, many married girls become seriously depressed. “Some try to kill themselves or at least have suicidal ideation,” says Elika.
Feeling on the grooms’ side tends to be more positive. “Many feel there is an implication of status that they were able to “save” the girls’ family,” explains Elika. “Some take on these young girls as a second or third wife, hoping the new bride can bring them more children, and especially sons.”
How do the parents feel?
“Like anything, there’s a broad spectrum of feeling,” says Elika. “I’ve seen many fathers devastated but believing there was no other option. They may have other children to also feed, or feel exploited — a debt to pay versus a life to give.”
What can be done to combat child marriage?
It’s important to note that this practice also occurs in the U.S. and many other Western countries, yet rarely makes headlines. Between 2000 and 2015, at least 207,459 minors were married in the States, and the true figure is likely far higher.
What can be done in Afghanistan? In the immediate term, better healthcare, and even just a better general understanding of key health issues might make a significant difference to many girls’ welfare. “In some regions, there needs to be more awareness-raising around the dangers and health implications of young girls giving birth,” says Elika. “To some, it may just feel like part of the culture — how it’s always been done.”
Education has often been the best protection against child marriage, but now that the Taliban is in power, such opportunities are practically nonexistent for the female population of Afghanistan. Girls over the age of 11, and in some cases even younger, are banned from attending school entirely. A significant weight of responsibility for this sits on America’s shoulders: In ending its occupation of Afghanistan last summer, America all but guaranteed the return of the Taliban, and with it the rapid escalation in poverty and insecurity that drives practices like child marriage in the first place. Even if international powers dedicated significant effort to the effort to improve women’s fate in Afghanistan, it would probably take decades to make an impact.
That doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to child marriage. Instead, it’s become more important than ever to understand the roots of the issue. “I’m reminded of a quote by the late Archbishop Tutu,” says Elika. “‘We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.’”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
