Afghanistan’s tragedy reaches its climax… Selling children for food
A bereaved Afghan mother said that she had to sell her three-year-old daughter to a shop owner after she had accumulated debts so her family would not starve.
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Sabra says she may have to sell her three-month-old baby to pay for food as millions of poor families in Afghanistan struggle to cope with the hardships of living, according to the Sun.
According to the report, the Sabrat family, 25, took grocery food in debt. The owner threatened to “imprison” the family members if they did not pay the amount due.
To pay her debts, the family sold her three-year-old daughter Dekra to marry the grocer’s son, Zabihullah. Her future father-in-law decided to wait for the girl to grow up to take her.
“I’m not glad I did that, but we don’t have anything to drink or eat”, Sabra said. “If the situation continues as it is, we will (also) have to sell our three-month-old daughter”.
Another neighbor, Gul Bibi, claims to have sold her child, Ashoo, eight or nine years old, to a 23-year-old man who owed her money.
This man is currently in Iran and Gul Bibi fears the day he will pick up Ashoo. She says we know it’s not the right thing, but we have no choice.
The tragedy of the displaced in the Zamiat camp is the same in all Afghan camps. In the town of Ghazni, a displaced mother was forced to sell her 13-year-old daughter for £1,200 because she did not have enough money to feed her three other children.
In the Ail refugee camp, near the Afghan city of Herat, many parents told reporters that they had agreed to sell their children, some up to the age of four, in order to buy food.
One of the camp’s mothers told CNN how she sold her baby daughter, Akila, to an old man in the camp next to her family.
The mother stated that she and her three sons had fled the village because of the severe drought in the country.
“To avoid starvation in my children’s homes, I gave my daughter to an old man for about $3,000, but I’ve only received $70 so far, I had no money, no food, no family support, and my husband died a while ago,” she continued.
