Afghan Girl, 6, Rescued from Child Bride Fate; Countless Others not so Lucky

[davidn3600]

A 6-year-old Afghan girl sold by her father into an impending marriage to pay off a family medical debt got a reprieve Monday: She will now get to stay with her parents, thanks to an anonymous donor who is paying off the debt of $2,500 through an American lawyer, according to a still-developing New York Times report.

The girl, Naghma, wound up being bartered by father Taj Mohammad after he borrowed the $2,500 from a fellow refugee-camp resident over the course of a year. The money was to pay for a hospital treatment for his wife and medical care for some of his nine children, including a three-year-old who later froze to death. If he couldn’t pay it off in another year, Naghma would be forced to wed the lender’s 17-year-old son.

“They said, ‘Pay back our money,’ and I didn’t have any money, so I had to give my girl,” Mohammad told the New York Times. “I was thankful to them at the time, so it was my decision, but the elders also demanded that I do this.” Soon after the deal was struck, the boy to whom Naghma was engaged insisted that she stop attending school, which she loves, her father said.

On Monday afternoon, there was no word on who paid off the debt or how. But now that it has been paid, said a New York Times follow-up story, the girl, Naghma, will remain with her family. She will no doubt continue to live in extreme poverty in the Kabul refugee camp, and will perhaps even forced into marriage when she’s older. Still, she is one of the luckier girls of Afghanistan, where half of all girls are forced to marry under age 15, according to estimates by the United Nations agency UN Women. That’s despite the legal age for marriage in the country being 16 for girls.

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/afghan-girl--6--rescued-from-child-bride-fate--many-others-not-so-lucky-181725317.html

[LittleBlue]

1. Not surprising

Tribal societies don't have birth control, so the only way to avoid illegitimate children is to wed early.

When the US military runs around the country destroying poppy crops, those farmers often have to sell their daughters to the Taliban. The Taliban loan farmers the money to plant with the idea that once the crops are harvested, the harvested opium will be worth far more than the loan. In that way, the Taliban is repaid and the farmer's family eats for another year. But when US troops destroy those crops, the Taliban expect repayment in girls. Think about that the next time the US government trumpets a "victory" in the Afghanistan opium drug trade.

[leftynyc]

2. That's quite the pretzel you've

twisted to make the barbarity of selling young girls the fault of the US. Because we all know this kind of stuff NEVER happened before we stepped foot in Afghanistan. Why, I remember how FABULOUS things were for women under the taliban when women couldn't even leave their homes without a male relative, couldn't get an education, got acid thrown in their faces for their ankles showing. Care to take a stab at how that is the fault of the US also? Your attitude is everything that is wrong with my side of the aisle.

[loudsue]

4. So true. It is time the world's patriarchal societies started respecting their women

as equal members of society. And it is WAY past time that the world STOPPED using "religion" to justify the way women are viewed and treated.

[seabeyond]

3. i dunno... thinking being SIX helps avoid pregnancy in and of itself. fuck. nt