Afghanistan humanitarian crisis

[Ihatetomatoes]

BBC news 3 out of 4 struggle to find food

A growing number of billionaires and yet shocking food famine around the world.

Shocking decisions taken to sell children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q25dwj807o

I just looked it up as interested and it looks like a range of reasons for a cascading collapse, airforce, non existent soldiers, theft, lack of command etc.

It also shows how hard it is for any country to get out from under an oppressive regime such as the Taliban.

I am tired of us in the West being expected to pay to solve all the world's problems.

They do sell the boys

they sell the boys to be raped by older men.

it’s known as Bacha bazi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi

the American troops said it was one of the hardest things about being in Afghanistan, knowing that most of the policticsl leaders raped boys.

But Afghanistan wasn’t always a backwater of degrading zealotry and a quite frankly bizarre take on Islam. I’ve said upthread and I’ll say it again in the 1970s cosmopolitan Afghanistan was a progressive and a more liberal country. Girls were educated and women had professional jobs. Kabul university was internationally recognised as producing rigorous academic and scientific studies. The rural areas were more conservative and yes there was poverty, but nothing by comparison with the suffering of today’s standards, particularly for woman. Dictators don’t want an educated society, because it’s much harder to control. They don’t want freedom of thinking, they want indoctrination and followers who don’t question.

@Ihatetomatoes "We are so lucky to live in the UK."

Whilst I agree that we should consider ourselves fortunate, it is incorrect to say that our democracy, women's rights, healthcare, welfare and relative social justice are a matter of "luck". Men and women over many centuries were imprisoned, transported, tortured and killed to ensure the many freedoms we enjoy today. Luck had very little to do with it.

Its the saddest of situations, heart breaking.
I'm currently reading Lyse Doucet's book about Afghanistan. I can wholeheartedly recommend it as it gives so much background information and insight in the situation

@HRTQueen they had far, far more liberty when evil Western armies were embroiled there and still the mysogeny pervades

Yes, and it's not working. Compare and contrast the majority of African countries post-colonialisation, with say Singapore.
Endless money and aid and nothing gets better. Insanity on the West's part doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

@ginasevern all our freedoms have come on the back of blood and sacrifice and bravery of forgone people's .

This. The young men that are physically fit and able are coming here. They don't seem to have any plan to help their mothers and sisters.

Child marriage happened before the USA ever went anywhere near Afghanistan. It’s a cultural problem, especially in rural areas. Even if times were good people would be selling their girls to dirty old perverts. Clearly someone has some money if they can spend it on buying “wives”.

I didn't say it was down to luck, I said we were lucky, we are, to be born here, I didn't have those struggles over the centuries, therefore I consider myself to be lucky to be born here. That's all, not taking away from the historical struggles of previous generations.

Also I’d be damned if I ever sold my small daughter into sexual slavery to an old man. How many of you would actually sell your little girl to an old man? I’d rather we all starved to death than do that.

The poor little girls, women in Afghanistan have the worst lot, I remember reading an article about a guy selling his daughters to clear drug debts. These people do not value their girls, the reason the Taliban took over so quickly despite there being an actual afghan army is because enough people didn’t have a problem with them. There are absolutely decent afghans out there but the society is fundamentally sick. Listen to any us/british soldier talk about the casualness of bacha bazi in Afghanistan and you’ll see child rape is normalised.

Well, yes, but blaming the billionaires is easier.

Yes it was a country the for many life was far more prosperous and progressive but a country deeply divided by wealth and opportunity where religious leaders held power in many areas through fear

Its absolutely tragic what has happened and is still happening

It’s a glib word to use. We should be proud and grateful to our forebears, not counting ourselves “lucky”.

Think you need to look at the ones claiming superiority director religion rather than bank balance for this one. Educating people out of religions that are causing the collapse of large areas of the world is your way forward with this one. Money put into Afghanistan will ultimately be used to shore up the Taliban

The WHO had a report saying that 90% of afghan women experienced domestic violence in Afghanistan. Frankly I have zero sympathy with afghan men.

@Swiftie1878 "Not enough to have fought for their rights. I have no time for these men.Instead of crying about having to SELL their daughters (to feed and access healthcare themselves!), why not mobilise and tackle the Taliban regime? Cowards, the lot of them."

Pretty hard to disagree with that. The sight of those men weeping and wailing about selling their 5 year old daughters into sexual slavery made me want to throw up.

@Bringemout "Also I’d be damned if I ever sold my small daughter into sexual slavery to an old man. How many of you would actually sell your little girl to an old man? I’d rather we all starved to death than do that."

Yep. So for example, there's no evidence at all of Irish parents selling their daughters for sex or marriage during the Irish Potato Famine when an estimated 1 million people (although probably considerably more) died of direct starvation or related diseases.

Which charity are you donating too? Where is their presence in the country? How do get around the Taliban?
Keen to donate but not if it's a total waste.
I have experience of Afghanistan and ok be of its neighbours and most money is wasted or stolen via corruption.

They actually introduced a new penal code legalising domestic violence by permitting husbands and “masters” to punish their wives so long as they don’t break bones or leave open wounds. If you do go too far whilst hitting get with a stick for example you can expect to serve up your a measly 15 days in jail.

If the woman attempts to return to her family without permission then she ( and anyone who offers her refuge) can get a 3 month stint in jail.

www.jurist.org/news/2026/02/taliban-new-penal-code-legalizes-domestic-violence-against-women/

But surely it is a matter of luck where you are born 🤷‍♀️
And that poor girl in de bbc clip has been very unlucky to be born in that situation.

I don’t think anyone is saying the UK is ‘lucky’ to be a free democratic country , and Afghanistan is ‘unlucky’ to be where they currently are.

But on a personal level there is nothing you can do about where you are born, and that poor girl can’t help that she is facing the situation she is in.

The leaders do seem to have a predilection for young boys, and it's well known despite homosexuality obviously being utterly illegal.
I was also surprised there was no mention of selling boys in the article. Maybe it's only the Taliban, whose misogyny is so fervent, they don't even want women as sex toys.
I despair at how so many men, and it is only men, can be so thoroughly evil, all at the same time, in the same place.
There but for the grace of God. I thank my lucky stars I was born in Western Europe.

The worst part is it’s inescapable. Women probably don’t feature in the article because they’re silenced and kept away from even speaking.

What happens to little girls is unbearable and boys too. The digital silence in Iran too whilst horrors go on.

These men are something to fear and idk how the people get away from it.

So why do you think the relative didn't 'help out' his relatives with some money, as opposed to buying a female child?
Really, think about this?
Why wasn't a male child sold?
Really, think about why little girls are bought?
And yet the focus seemed to be on the 'poor' father.