10 year old afghani girl sold to an elderly man

[Soubriquet]

To “help around the house” he said.

That poor girl. And the other girls that have been sold or are in the process of being sold

link

reproach sorry!

It really is not that long ago that indenturing children was perfectly normal in the west, or in modern countries. Serfdom was only abolished in Russia in the 1860s, less than 200 years ago. Trade in humans is not unusual and even part of the social structure in many settings. It's pretty naive to imagine it's only trade in girls.

People live with what seems normal and inevitable, and often they don't think death is preferable.

Selling or indenturing children is pretty common practice across large parts if the world and always has been. Its tragic but not new.

@EverybodyScream

I would starve to death before I sold my daughter to a life of slavery and rape.

Hear hear

I think what we are seeing here is that some people have absolutely no idea how privileged they are.

Those poor people living in a situation where the only answer can be to sell your child

It is never the answer. Girls are worthless there. Not selling their sons are they?

@stereeotype

What does the family do once the daughter is sold and the money from it is gone? They're going to find a way aren't they? So why can't they not sell their daughters?

Sorry but I cannot accept desperation leads to this, why can't people take some accountability for anything these days?

Had this family had sons, they wouldn't have the option to sell their daughters would they? They'd have found a way. Therefore, I struggle to have empathy for the decision to sell your daughter. Sorry.

I have complete empathy for the situation.c the poverty etc but the decision to sell your daughter is a decision, and A disgusting one.

Maybe some of them will starve to death.

ChardonnaysPetDragon

Why do you think the posters are blaming the mothers only? These children have two parents. Are the fathers above approach?“

This shows your complete lack of understanding about life in societies such as 2021Taliban Afghanistan. It is nothing whatsoever like your life.

If you can empty your mind of everything that you understand to be civilised and project yourself back 1,000 years you may have the beginnings of a vaguest inkling.

I don’t have personal experience if 2021 Afghanistan. My only (on the ground) experience is 1988 Morocco. It was considered quite a beacon of human rights back then. One of the families I still can’t forget is the “urban” family 7 miles outside of the big city. They were progressive with carpets, a bed and a television with an aerial that could pick up European channels. Father grew onions and several types of beans.
His 8 year old daughter walked into the city twice each week to sell at the market. She laid them out on handkerchiefs on the ground. If she failed to sell the majority of the crop, she, personally, went without an meal that night.

I imagine that 2021 Afghanistan has, or will, go backwards.

What do you not understand? This has no baring on your life, whatsoever. Women and girls are nothing in a very large part of the world.

@stereeotype its not just about selling them (sacrificing them) so the rest will live, it's about placing them in homes where they will be fed and (after a fashion) cared for - when you cant do it yourself. Do many or all the children in a family may be sold or given away - in marriage, as servants or worse.

Rearranging families like this is an age old response to poverty and famine and it's common in poor communities across the globe. Very few people who know what hunger is think starvation is a better option for their children, especially in cultures where marriages are often more arrangements between families than love matches anyway.

And, you know, there are worse things than becoming the wife of a much older man at a young age - you could become the concubine or servant instead. So still at their mercy but no status at all.

Sometimes it really shocks me how little most people in the west understand what actual poverty means and the choices that are commonly made by those who suffer it.

Porcupineintherough

“Sometimes it really shocks me how little most people in the west understand what actual poverty means and the choices that are commonly made by those who suffer it“

Yes, this.

It is nothing whatsoever like your life.

You know nothing about my life.

And, you know, there are worse things than becoming the wife of a much older man at a young age - you could become the concubine or servant instead. So still at their mercy but no status at all.

There's much better things, too. That nine year old will be raped, before her body is ready for such an act. She will be pregnant in hear early teens and lucky to survive the birth. Marriage in this case is a form of child abuse and a legal veneer to enable this man's appetites to be approved by society. Not all of them get support, either. Do you really think a bought child bride will get her rights enforced if he kicks her out in the street?

But there aren't better things @TheABC. Not today when this child needed them and not tomorrow when there will be many more like her. Poverty is going nowhere right now, although its something we can aspire to and work towards. Poverty - human rights - womens rights - they are all intertwined. The more social unrest, drought, war, famine there are , the worse it will be for all those at the bottom of society. And it really doest take much for a poor woman or a child to lose all rights altogether.

@Motherdare

Those poor people living in a situation where the only answer can be to sell your child

It is never the answer. Girls are worthless there. Not selling their sons are they?

Some poor families sell their little daughters for slavery marriage and then their sons into Bacha Bhazi - a form of forced prostitution of young boys who dress up as women and dance for large groups of older men. It also goes on in parts of Pakistan.

@TheABC

And, you know, there are worse things than becoming the wife of a much older man at a young age - you could become the concubine or servant instead. So still at their mercy but no status at all.

There's much better things, too. That nine year old will be raped, before her body is ready for such an act. She will be pregnant in hear early teens and lucky to survive the birth. Marriage in this case is a form of child abuse and a legal veneer to enable this man's appetites to be approved by society. Not all of them get support, either. Do you really think a bought child bride will get her rights enforced if he kicks her out in the street?

Wow, I guess we never knew...

Or - that's kind of irrelevant when other choices aren't actually available to you.

I would starve to death before I sold my daughter to a life of slavery and rape.

Easy to say, but it wouldn't just be you starving to death, it would be your children as well, including that daughter.

Yes you will starve to death but surely you will anyway? The money from that child won’t last forever and you are back to square one. Except that child is living a life of horror and rape forever.

The point is the child hopefully wont starve to death and their life is quite possibly going to be very little different from that they would have had (and that their mother had) anyway. And the test of the family keeps going for a bit and hopes things will improve (I think that life in Afghanistan is pretty much lived day to day at the moment anyway).

Would that ‘life’ be preferable? It would be a living hell. I would rather my child was dead.

“Pascal80
Some poor families sell their little daughters for slavery marriage and then their sons into Bacha Bhazi - a form of forced prostitution of young boys who dress up as women and dance for large groups of older men. It also goes on in parts of Pakistan.“

I thought homosexuality was against their laws. Do you know anything about how the rapists are not condemned for homosexuality Pascal80? Or is the fact the little boys are in girls’ clothes enough?

About Bhaca Bhazi involving boys en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi
The Taliban do not allow it but it goes on especially among warlords and powerful people apparently. The Americans ignored it.

How true it is that most of us have no idea what horror such a lot of the world is experiencing. Thank you for helping us notice with this post. I will donate to those organisations mentioned.

Homosexuality is forbidden by Islam (well at least the practice of it is) but pre-marital sexual contact between men has long been accepted in Afghanistan and isnt exactly considered the same thing - more of a make do until you got a wife. And then there's the whole Bacha bazi thing that is (certainly was) considered acceptable but again not an alternative to heterosexual sex and marriage. I'm sure there are gay men in Afghanistan same as everywhere else but goes far beyond that. And yes the boys have to dress and act feminine which then makes it ok to have sex with them.