Afghan families sell daughters to afford food, medical care amid crisis

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Disturbing instances have emerged from economically-poverished Afghanistan with families are selling their young daughters to be able to afford food, medical expenses and debt relief. The United Nations says three in four people in Afghanistan are unable to meet basic needs amid widespread unemployment, a struggling healthcare system and shrinking international aid. It estimates that 4.7 million people, more than 10% of the population, are one step away from famine. According to a BBC report from Afghanistan’s Ghor province, fathers struggling with extreme poverty and unemployment said they have been forced into "impossible choices" as hunger deepens across the country.

'Willing to sell my daughter'

Abdul Rashid Azimi, a resident of the province, said that he was considering selling one of his seven-year-old twin daughters, Roqia and Rohila, because extreme poverty, debt and unemployment had left him unable to feed his family. "I'm willing to sell my daughters. I'm poor, in debt and helpless," Abdul Rashid Azimi told BBC, weeping. "I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying 'Baba, give us some bread'. But what can I give? Where is the work?" he added. As he hugged and kissed Rohila while speaking to reporters, Abdul said the decision “breaks my heart” but described it as the only option left for his family’s survival. Another father, Saeed Ahmad, said that he was forced to sell his five-year-old daughter, Shaiqa, to a relative after she developed appendicitis and a cyst in her liver and he could not afford the medical treatment she needed. "I had no money to pay the medical expenses. So I sold my daughter to a relative," BBC quoted him saying. "If I had taken the whole sum at that time, he would have taken her away. So I told him just give me enough for her treatment now, and in the next five years you can give me the rest after which you can take her. She will become his daughter-in-law," he added. Saeed said the money for Shaiqa’s surgery came from a 2,00,000 Afghani arrangement under which she would eventually be married into the relative’s family. He accepted only enough money initially to pay for the operation, delaying the rest of the payment so his daughter could remain with him for a few more years. Two years back, his family, like millions of Afghans, received food aid including flour, cooking oil, lentils and nutritional supplements for children. But sharp cuts in international aid, particularly after the US slashed nearly all assistance to Afghanistan and other major donors reduced support, left families without basic lifelines.

Why daughters sold over sons?

Families are largely selling daughters rather than sons because boys are traditionally viewed as future earners who can support households financially. In Afghanistan, that preference has become even more pronounced under Taliban restrictions limiting education and employment opportunities for women and girls. There is also a longstanding custom in which the groom’s family gives money or gifts to the bride’s family during marriage, making daughters a source of immediate financial relief for impoverished families facing hunger, debt and medical crises. The practice of underage marriage remains widespread in Afghanistan and has reportedly increased since the Taliban barred girls from education. Experts said girls are often the ones sold because restrictions on women’s education and employment have deepened gender inequality, while the Taliban’s policies toward women have also contributed to international donors pulling back aid, worsening the humanitarian crisis.

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