Deeply distressing - article on rising number of girls in Afghanistan being sold into child marriage.

[ahjeez]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/15/afghanistan-girls-sold-into-child-marriage

This is an extremely upsetting article.

If anyone knows of any organisations that help women and girls in Afghanistan, please do share.

If you read any analysis of all about what happened you can see that “the west” is not solely blamed. The US really, genuinely attempted to try and improve Afghanistan and within that they did a lot for women’s rights while also getting a lot wrong because the government they backed was also corrupt.

The reasons for Afghanistan today are complex including other regional interferences and no analysis concludes otherwise.

It’s best not to dwell on this too much because ultimately there is ZERO chance of it ever changing because these practices, attitudes and behaviours are ingrained so deeply into their culture that it will take generations to eradicate. It’s a tragedy and curse for the females to be raised under such brutal conditions, all we can do is hope some find a way to escape somehow.

It took us in this country centuries to alter our culture so that women ceased to be the property of men (father, husband, sons) from the cradle to the grave; expecting Afghanistan to move faster than we did is perhaps a little optimistic. If they haven't moved towards a more equitable society by 2626, that's time to start to worry that they can't manage to change on their own and need our paternalistic (or maternalistic?) help with changing their culture.

Quite. Same as most British men abhor the gang raping of minors that has been so prevalent in the Pakistani community in our country.

Most British men (or men of any race or nationality) might like the idea of forty-two virgins fawning over them and sexually available at all times, but it seems absolutely probable that desire would exceed performance; most of them probably wouldn't be able to get it up after the first three or four, in some cases fewer.

And there is no mention of Viagra in the Koran.

I do think this is only going to get worse for the women / children of Afghanistan. Aid donors have pulled away as aid is being diverted to the Taliban and its supporters. The U.S. has permanently terminated food aid since 2025. The world food program is currently feeding 1 in 9 of 14 million Afghans who are in danger of suffering malnutrition but are looking at a massive funding shortfall going forward plus continuing difficulties being able to operate.

I think as poverty continues to bite the number of child marriages wil rise.

And, incidentally, the men of the US. Several states in America have no minimum age for marriage eg California! In several US states the approval of the parents is enough. Appalling in this day and age but little said about it.

Yes. I can imagine that very easily. What do you think would happen, for instance, if a disaster wiped out all electronics and threw the world into instability? So that people globally were as hungry, desperate, and insecure (in terms of future safety, and survival) as they are in Afghanistan?

I absolutely believe that women in the western world would effectively lose all the rights afforded to us, and a significant majority of men would quickly (over months) make the most of women and girls' helplessness and vulnerability.

I think a good 20% of men wouldn't, and possibly 10 or 15% more wouldn't be overly keen but would pretty much go along with it, but most would actively enjoy it.

The link you posted while saying Biden could stop it has this line :

July 24 — At a rally in Phoenix, Trump again boasts, “I started the move out of Afghanistan,” adding “I think it was impossible for him [Biden] to stop it, but it was a much different deal.”

Trump says that when he was president, in a phone conversation with the leader of the Taliban, he warned that after U.S. troops leave if “you decide to do something terrible to our country … we are going to come back and we are going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit.” Trump says he believes the two “had a real understanding” but that after Trump left office “now they’re going wild over there.”

Not sure if this should have a thread of its own so that more know there is an international petition:

International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences
https://www.projectresist.org.uk/news/international-declaration-on-gender-apartheid-and-its-destructive-consequences

I always wonder about the whole “would you watch them starve instead argument”. There seem to be plenty of men who can afford to buy children, so theres money for that. The truth is there seems to be a very big appetite for children in that country both girls and boys. No one is forcing anyone to buy a child to rape are they? This is a cultural norm. One wonders why the fathers don’t prostitute themselves first before offering up their children?

I think they know whats expected of them when a journalist comes along asking questions, they are used to foreign NGO’s, how many will say “I have too many girls and I get a good price for the young ones”. There are fathers in Afghanistan who are still trying to get education for their daughters, some secret ones were shut down, there are good people but the cultural norms are strong, afghans have historically bartered female children for anything from marriage to settling debts or resolving disputes. It is not new, people didn’t suddenly start selling their children, they’ve been doing it for centuries.

Also yeah I probably would rather starve to death next to my daughter than to sell her to a man who well probably kill her whether on purpose or by accident within a few years but not after torturing her.

My personal view is we should be offering asylum to any afghan girl, the men can go back, they will be fine.

I think a significant minority would be happy with it, but there are men who I think that would be appalled in reality. There are men out there who would be disgusted by the idea of living in a talibanesque environment. Most men would think trying to marry an 8yr old is genuinely vile.

Yes, I can imagine that most men who have been raised in western culture would continue to be disgusted at the idea of abusing prepubescent children, but I can't help but think that, if the social order was significantly disrupted, a majority of men would quickly take advantage of the vulnerability of adult women and teenage girls.

This. It starts with them.

Yeah I completely agree, I do think teenage girls would become very vulnerable. Schoolgirls being harassed in the street is nothing new unfortunately, even though they are clearly in school uniform and therefore clearly children.

I think though the specific paedophila in Afghanistan is a really strange phenomena. Because even if something isn’t punished finding children attractive in itself is quite odd. I can almost see how teenage girls would be attractive (to me they look like kids so not completely, but they are at least developing).

What I find strange is the demand for actual children. If you said to me theres a bunch of men who wanted to marry 14yr olds I’d be disgusted but not that surprised.

This is worthy of some sort of study imo.

The islamic justification the taliban use (and others who permit child marriage, iran, iraq, lebanon, parts of yemen) is often that if a child is big enough and can “bear” sex then it’s fine, she doesn’t have to have reached puberty. There is a book on jurisprudence by one of the Khomenis saying that getting sexual pleasure from an infant is fine as long as it’s non penetrative which means according to this particular ruling you can marry an infant. I need to go scrub my brain out. Obviously most muslims find this stuff gross, god knows feminists in many of these countries are constantly battling the weirdos in their own countries but it’s an uphill battle.

I don’t think we can blame the west for this, it’s not a new phenomenon unfortunately.

Another kinfepoint gang rape rape by…..Afghans in East London (Barking) Park 😡

https://x.com/themerciannews/status/2087530508292891132?s=46

I thought there had to be three or more people before it was a gang.

No. More than one makes it a gang rape.

Poor woman.

Dont forget that the media publicise crimes like this because they know their audience wants to lap up reports of violence by men from "other" cultures.

And dont bother about "our" men committing sexual crimes.

If you are concerned about violence against women in the UK surely you would want all women who have been harmed to be acknowledged and the perpetrators dealt with.

This thread discusses women and girls being abused in Afghanistan by Afghan men.
The article refers to women being rape by gangs of Afghan men in London.
Which is relevant.
We are importing rape.

Dont forget that the media publicise crimes like this because they know their audience wants to lap up reports of violence by men from "other" cultures

You think people outraged by "asylum seekers" raping women in the UK are lapping it up? That's a really weird way of looking at it. All rapes are wicked but if these men weren't here illegally, these women wouldn't have been raped by them.

And I see plenty of coverage of rapes committed by British men. The difference is here it's a crime, in Afghanistan it's the woman's fault.

Of course we aren't "importing" rape any more than the thousands of men from Europe who visit or work in other countries rape women.

As rapists already exist in the UK, the concept is just stupid, and just been whipped up by right wing media.

Added to which the thread OP was about child marriage in Afghanistan.

But as usual all those who dont actual care about all women who are raped have leapt on the thread to try and whip up false facts about rape in the UK.

Really strange that on a feminist forum so may posters want to erase or excuse the rape of women by those born and brought up in the UK.

Its like having some badly programmed bot. At every opportunity select out stories that "substantiate" this obsession.

Really strange that on a feminist forum so may posters want to erase or excuse the rape of women by those born and brought up in the UK.

Where has that happened on this thread?

It hasn't.

Your arguments are weird.

It kind of brings to mind that so many men will use prostitutes when they must know that the majority of those women are desperate, how do they justify that? I get the impression they do it by "believing" they are compensating the women for the sexual abuse by paying them, helping them to earn their living so to speak. They reframe it as "helping" maybe.
It takes a measure of dehumanisation to do that I think.
And it feels like that dehumanisation is what sits under the Pellicot case, and those other ones like those husbands caught drugging their wives, or even spiking their drinks with caffeine so that they cant claim to "be tired". Failure to regard women (and children) as fully human. I think many men work hard to resist this (socially constructed) tendency, but many others don't even register it as truly abhorrent. I guess they believe it's just the way of things.