Poverty and hunger have caused some Afghan families to sell their daughters and sons, sometimes even before they are born.
“A woman in the Police District 6 of Kabul city sold her unborn child to another woman for 50,000 afghanis due to poverty,” said a source with knowledge of the situation.
“The woman, who is nine months pregnant, has three daughters and one son. All these children are between two and nine years old. The woman’s husband is unemployed,” the source told Zan Times on condition of anonymity. The source added that the family of six live in a small house that they rent for 2,000 afghanis.
A neighbour of the family confirmed the account of the first source to Zan Times, adding, “This woman had aborted her child last year due to poverty.”
Sales of children, particularly girls, have increased since the Taliban took over as unemployment and poverty have forced some families to take such drastic acts in an effort to save the lives of other family members.
With the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the country has been engulfed by a humanitarian crisis. The UN said in late August that more than half of the country’s population, nearly 24 million people, is in need of immediate assistance, of which 19 million face acute levels of food shortages.
On September 27, Markus Potzel, the UN secretary-general’s acting special representative for Afghanistan sounded the alarm on Afghanistan’s dire economic situation in a briefing to the Security Council. He demanded $ 614 million in immediate support from donors to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation that will worsen in the coming winter.
Though Afghanistan suffered from food shortages, poverty, and unemployment before the Taliban takeover, the situation has dramatically worsened in the ensuing social and political crisis as well as the Taliban’s pariah status on the world stage. Unemployment has skyrocketed. The Taliban’s restrictions on women, and its ban on women’s employment, have added to the worsening situation for many households.
Meanwhile, many Kabul residents complain about the unfair and discriminatory distribution of humanitarian aid, saying that many deserving families receive nothing.
