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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/aug/15/five-years-taliban-rule-afghanistan-collapse-visualised>
"‘I married off my daughter so that none of us would die of hunger.” Malika
hesitated before saying the words aloud. The 46-year-old lives with her husband
and four youngest children (three girls and a boy) in Chihil Dukhtarān, one of
Kabul’s poorest neighbourhoods.
Poverty pushed the family to the brink before Malika and her husband made what
they describe as the hardest decision of their lives: marrying off their eldest
daughter, Maryam, for 200,000 afghanis (£2,270). She was still a teenager.
“God is my witness that during that winter, our food was almost nothing but dry
bread and boiled water. Even that was often unavailable, and many nights we
went to bed hungry,” she says.
“My poor daughter cried in secret … [but knew] if she refused this marriage,
all of us would die from hunger, cold and misery.”
Almost two years on from Maryam’s marriage, crisis again looms for the family.
Malika can no longer afford to send her two youngest daughters (aged 12 and
nine) to school, so they work alongside their 16-year-old sister in a clothing
factory for meagre wages. Her husband’s job is pushing a handcart, but he often
returns home empty-handed – one of millions of Afghans out of work in a
crippled economy. The dowry money has almost run out. Like many Afghan
families, they have one resource left to tap: their girls."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
