A six-year-old girl was allegedly forced into marriage with a 45-year-old man in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, prompting intervention from Taliban authorities who arrested both the father and the prospective groom, according to multiple Afghan media reports.
The case, which occurred in Helmand’s Marjah district, involved a man who already had two wives and allegedly paid the girl’s father for the arranged marriage. Local Taliban authorities have temporarily prevented the girl from being taken to the man’s house but have not issued any official statement or condemnation regarding the marriage. A photo circulating online shows the 45-year-old man and the six-year-old girl during their wedding ceremony, sparking outrage among social media users and human rights activists.
No charges were brought against either man following their arrest. Instead, Taliban officials reportedly ordered the 45-year-old to wait until the girl reaches age nine before taking her to his home, according to local media reports citing Amu.tv.
The incident reflects a disturbing trend across Afghanistan where child marriages have surged since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. UN Women reported last year that the Taliban’s restriction on girls’ education led to a 25% increase in child marriages and a 45% rise in childbearing across the country.
Education Ban Fuels Child Marriage Crisis
The Taliban’s systematic exclusion of girls from education beyond primary school has created conditions that make child marriage increasingly common. More than four million girls will be out of education if the ban continues until 2025, according to UNICEF projections.
“Without economic or educational prospects, families face a real dilemma,” states a recent report from the Overseas Development Institute. There has been an increase in marriages that occur below the age preferred by women, with 69% of respondents knowing a girl married at an inappropriate age.
Human rights organizations report that families increasingly view marrying off daughters as one of few available survival strategies. A $2,000 bride price is enough to feed a family for a year, noted Too Young to Wed founder Stephanie Sinclair in a Washington Post opinion piece.
Scale of the Crisis
The humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Afghanistan has pushed child marriage rates to alarming levels. In Shahrak-e-Sabz, a displacement settlement in Herat province, researchers counted 118 girls who had been sold as child brides, and 116 families with girls waiting for buyers. This represents 40 percent of families surveyed.
UNICEF estimates that 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15-49 years were married before the age of 18. More disturbing still, UNICEF’s partners registered 183 child marriages and 10 cases of selling of children over 2018 and 2019 in Herat and Baghdis provinces alone, with children ranging from six months to 17 years old.
We have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old up for future marriage in return for a dowry,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore stated in November 2021.
International Response and Notable Cases
The international community has witnessed several high-profile cases that brought global attention to Afghanistan’s child marriage crisis. In 2021, nine-year-old Parwana Malik was sold by her father to a 55-year-old man for approximately $2,200 worth of land, sheep and cash to help the family survive.
After an international outcry as a result of CNN’s story, Parwana was returned to her family due to the backlash from the community against the buyer. The U.S.-based charity Too Young to Wed subsequently relocated Parwana, her mother, and siblings to a safe house in Herat.
“They treated me badly, they were cursing me, they were waking me up early and making me work,” Parwana told CNN about her experience during the two weeks she spent with her buyer.
Twenty-four female U.S. senators wrote to President Biden urging action on child marriages in Afghanistan following such cases. However, Over half of Afghanistan’s estimated 40 million population, nearly 23 million people, is projected to require humanitarian assistance in 2025.
Boys Also Face Sexual Exploitation
While girls face forced marriage, Afghan boys confront a different but equally horrific form of abuse through the practice of bacha bazi, or “boy play.” The practice is reported to continue into the present as of 2024, despite Taliban claims of opposition.
Boys, mostly aged between 14 and 18, were employed as bodyguards, secretaries, support staff or drivers for Taliban officials and that some had experienced sexual abuse by their employers, according to UN reports.
The U.K. government reported in November that cases are underreported due to stigma and fear, and victims have limited access to support and rehabilitation due to reduced international aid. The 2024 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report noted there was a pattern of employing or recruiting child soldiers and a pattern of sexual slavery by the Taliban.
Legal Framework Remains Unclear
The Taliban’s approach to child marriage reflects broader contradictions in their governance. While they issued a decree in late 2021 stating that women should not be considered “property” and must consent to marriage, enforcement remains virtually non-existent.
Under the previous Afghan government, the minimum legal age for marriage was 16. The Taliban have not clarified whether this standard remains in place. Afghanistan co-sponsored the 2013, 2014 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, but these commitments appear meaningless under current conditions.
Health Consequences
The physical and psychological toll on child brides is severe. The risk of dying from childbirth and pregnancy is two times higher for girls between the ages of 15 and 19 than for older women. Girls under age 15 are five times more likely than women to die in childbirth, and their babies are often born premature.
Beyond immediate health risks, studies indicate that approximately 2,000 girls have attempted suicide due to the unbearable conditions they were subject to. The psychological trauma extends far beyond the initial abuse, with many victims unable to reintegrate into society.
Growing Gender Apartheid
The child marriage crisis represents one aspect of what Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai calls Afghanistan’s “gender apartheid.” The Taliban continued expanding their draconian restrictions on women and girls, with more than 70 decrees targeting what women can and cannot do.
Most recently, women have been banned from speaking loudly in their own homes and cannot be heard outside. Under this repressive law, the Taliban “morality inspectors” (police) were empowered to threaten and detain individuals who violate their morality code.
When we look at the scale of the oppression that Afghan women are facing, there is no legal term,” Yousafzai told The Times. There is no internationally recognised crime that can explain the intensity of it.
International Community’s Dilemma
The latest child marriage case in Helmand underscores the international community’s limited leverage over Taliban policies. Afghanistan has not featured strongly in the Trump administration’s policy announcements – but the signs so far are not promising.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested placing bounties on Taliban leaders to force the release of remaining American hostages, signaling a more confrontational approach. Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations warn that disengagement would worsen the crisis for Afghan women and children.
“It is a moral imperative that the international community does not abandon the women and girls of Afghanistan,” said Stephanie Sinclair of Too Young to Wed.
As winter approaches and economic conditions deteriorate further, child marriage rates are expected to climb. For the six-year-old girl in Helmand – and countless others like her – the Taliban’s intervention offers only temporary reprieve from a practice that has become a survival mechanism in a nation where half the population faces starvation.
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