Girls forced to marry before they even reach puberty, minors who give birth repeatedly, and children given away as future brides to pay off family debts. The testimonies recorded by The Guardian and the Zan Times in Afghanistan paint a picture of a social and humanitarian tragedy that has deepened since the Taliban’s return to power. For security reasons and to protect their identities, the names of the women and girls who spoke have been changed, as The Guardian clarifies.

The ban on girls’ education beyond sixth grade, the exclusion of women from the workforce, poverty, and household debt have created an environment in which marriage is seen by many families as the only way out. Behind the numbers are children like Sima—a pseudonym used to protect her identity—who was married at age 13, has already given birth four times, and says that, at just 18 years old, she feels “like a 70-year-old.”

Particularly shocking are the cases of girls who have been given to families of men from infancy or early childhood, with the agreement that they would be handed over to their future husbands when they turned seven, eight, or nine years old. The accounts describe a society trapped between hunger, debt, and a system that systematically deprives women and girls of any opportunity for education, work, and independence.

Her father beat her, and she agreed to marry at age 13

Eighteen-year-old Sima has already given birth four times. Her youngest child is a newborn, while her oldest is four years old. Sitting with her children in their mud-brick room in Badghis Province, Shima says: “When the Taliban took over, I had just finished sixth grade and was about to start seventh. But two months later, my father pressured me relentlessly to marry my cousin. After he beat me several times, I was forced to agree.”

At age 13, Sima became a bride and became pregnant. One of the children she gave birth to died of pneumonia at the age of one. Now she does all the housework: she carries water, tends to the cows, and bakes naan in a clay oven. Meanwhile, her children cling to her legs and cry.

Dramatic Increase in Teenage Mothers Following the Return of the Taliban

Unfortunately, Sima’s case is no longer an exception. Interviews with staff at a public hospital in northern Afghanistan revealed that 42 underage girls gave birth during the first five months of this year. Six were in their second pregnancy. Five had ectopic pregnancies, and 18 underwent cesarean sections. Two died, although their babies survived.

They are victims of a growing trend toward child marriage, which is fueled by Taliban policies that legitimize this practice and force girls to drop out of school, combined with an ever-deepening humanitarian crisis, in which families are forced to sell their daughters to pay off debts or buy food. In addition to Sima’s family, the Guardian and the Zan Times spoke with three other families with daughters under the age of nine who were given in marriage to settle debts. The youngest was two months old when she was promised as a bride, with all the families agreeing to hand the girls over to their future husbands when they reached the age of between seven and nine.

Child marriage is not a new phenomenon in South Asia. However, while the practice was on the decline throughout the region, the Taliban’s seizure of power reversed this trend in Afghanistan.

“To feed my other children, I had to sacrifice one of them.”

Sabnam, a midwife, says: “Since the new government took power, the number of teenage mothers has increased dramatically. In the past, perhaps only two teenage mothers would visit the hospital each month, most of whom came from illiterate families. Now, however, both educated and illiterate families are marrying off their daughters at a young age.”

Sambnam recalls a case from 2024 in which a 13-year-old girl came to her with severe bleeding following a miscarriage. “I was deeply saddened. I spoke with her mother, and the answer I heard from her still echoes in my mind. When I asked her why she allowed her 13-year-old daughter to marry a man nearly 30 years her senior, she said, ‘To feed my other children, I had to sacrifice one of them.’”

Some families mistakenly believe that the younger the mother, the healthier and smarter the child will be. Mothers who are still children themselves often have not completed their physical or psychological development and face an increased risk of severe bleeding, anemia, miscarriage, dystocia, and preterm birth, as well as a higher likelihood of giving birth to a low-birth-weight infant or one with health problems.

“I feel like I’m 70 years old”

Sima says she continues to experience the consequences of having children at such a young age. “During my pregnancy, I fainted several times because my blood pressure dropped too low. I have constant headaches. My kidneys hurt. I feel like a 70-year-old,” she says.

Sambnam says that families often oppose cesarean sections, believing they limit future pregnancies. Two young mothers who were recently under her care died during childbirth because their husbands refused to allow them to have a C-section.

A report published in June by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated the maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan at 600 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 16 in Iran, 155 in Pakistan, and 12 in the United Kingdom. The report cites as causes the restrictions imposed on women in the healthcare sector and the shortage of healthcare workers in rural areas, while emphasizing that investment in education and female healthcare personnel is vital.

More than 2.2 million girls excluded from education

Sima is one of more than 2.2 million girls in Afghanistan who have been barred from continuing their education beyond sixth grade—roughly from the age of 12—since the Taliban returned to power. Many are now forced into marriage and early motherhood. The Afghan Center for Human Rights reports that, according to one educator’s estimate, 70% of the girls expelled from school were forced into marriage, while a smaller survey of 15 such girls found that 66% of them were under 18 years of age.

While the country’s laws prior to the Taliban criminalized marriage for individuals under the age of 15, a new decree this year set no minimum age limit whatsoever. The decree follows the closure of schools and universities for women and increasing restrictions on their freedom of movement. The new laws have barred women and girls from education and work, exacerbating Afghanistan’s economic hardship amid rising unemployment.

“Most of the time we’re hungry”

Shima’s 24-year-old husband is unemployed. He went to Iran looking for work but returned empty-handed after three months. She would like to be able to work, but as a mother of three with household responsibilities, she has no opportunity to earn money or learn a skill. “Five families live in the same compound: my parents, my uncle with his two wives, and my brother with his wife,” says Sima. “Whenever the others have something to spare, they give it to us. Most of the time, we’re hungry,” she added.

After the Taliban closed the school gates and banned women from working in most public sector jobs, Sima’s family used her to pay off a debt: her father owed his brother about 2,800 euros, and Sima was given to her uncle’s son in lieu of the money.

A recent report by the United Nations Development Program shows that three-quarters of Afghanistan’s population— approximately 28 million people, cannot meet their basic needs, and that more than 80% of households are in debt. With the scaling back of USAID and the withdrawal from aid commitments by Europe and the United Kingdom, international aid to the country fell by more than 16% in 2025, resulting in hundreds of medical clinics closing or scaling back their operations. Without investment in employment and services, the report warns, the prospects for rebuilding people’s lives are bleak.

Girls Sold as Infants

The other three families interviewed are from western Afghanistan and say their daughters were used to pay off debts —the money was paid in advance, and the daughters were to be handed over later. Three of the girls are still under 10 years old, unaware of the future that has been planned for them…

The one-year-old granddaughter of 57-year-old Golnar was sold to pay off her father’s debt. As Golnar explains, the family had no food, the father fled from his creditors, and they agreed to sell the child into marriage for 2,650 euros in cash and partial debt forgiveness.
““When she turns eight, they’ll take her away from us,” says Golnar. “They gave us 100,000 afghani as a down payment and will give another 100,000 after they take the girl from me. We gave it directly to the creditors to pay off the debts,” she added. The grandmother worries about her granddaughter’s future, recalling girls who were sold years ago in her neighborhood: “They have no future. Whether they let us burn in a fire or face anything else, we’ll never know.”

Fifty-one-year-old Sahib Jan promised her two-month-old granddaughter to settle a debt, with the agreement that she would be returned when she turned seven. Jan takes comfort in the fact that at least they know who the buyer is, but she is upset because they received no cash at all and their hunger continues. “We gave this girl away to pay off our debts, and that was it. God is my witness that even now our living conditions are terrible and miserable,” she says.

Sabza, 44, sold her daughter—who is now seven years old—when the child was three, to pay off a debt of 3,900 euros, after she returned from Pakistan and couldn’t find anything to eat, while her husband was too sick to work. Now she is devastated because they will take her daughter away in a year. “If there were someone to give us that money, I would be so happy. If my daughter stayed with me, I would be overjoyed,” she says.

Her other children constantly ask her why she sold their sister, she says. “When my daughter goes to her aunt’s house, she comes back terrified and asks me where her sister went. I don’t know what condition they’ll be in once they take her away. When I think that they’ll take my daughter in a year, the sky seems to be falling on my head. I tell myself that there’s only one year left, nothing more,” she says.

Source: Protothema.gr