Carrying only a blanket for summer, 9-year-old Parwana Malik balances with her siblings on her mother’s lap as the family is rescued by a support group that saves girls from child marriage.
During the visit Parwana said, “I am really happy.” “(Dan) got me rid of my husband and my husband is old.”
At the time, Parwana’s father Abdul Malik said that she cried day and night, begging her not to sell, saying that she wanted to go to school and study instead.
After an international outcry as a result of the CNN story, the community backlash against the buyer resulted in the permit being returned to his family.
“This is a temporary solution,” said TYTW founder Stephanie Sinclair. “(But) what we’re really trying to do is stop girls from being sold into marriage.”
Afghanistan under pressure
Dominic Stillhart, Director of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said, “The international community is turning its back on a country on the brink of man-made catastrophe, having just returned from a six-day visit to Afghanistan.
Prominent Afghan women’s rights activist Mehbooba Seraj told CNN: “Afghan young girls (are) becoming the price of food.” “Because otherwise their family will starve to death.”
Even though marriage under the age of 15 is illegal across the country, it has generally been practiced for years, especially in the more rural parts of Afghanistan. And the situation has worsened since August, as families become more desperate.
“There is usually a lot of hurt, a lot of abuse, a lot of abuse in these things,” Seraj said, adding that some girls forced into marriage die in childbirth because of their bodies to cope. is very small. “Some of them can’t take it. They mostly die too young.”
Women have long been treated as second-class citizens in Afghanistan, which was ranked as the worst country in the world for women in the 2021 Women, Peace and Security Index.
And since the Taliban took power, many of the basic rights women fought for in the past two decades have been taken away.
Limits have been placed on girls’ education, women are banned in some workplaces and actresses can no longer appear in TV dramas.
escape from slavery
After a four-hour journey through mountain roads, Parwana’s family arrived late at night at a small hotel in Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city. His journey was escorted by a local representative of Too Young to Wed, along with his mother, Reza Gul, and his brother, Payinda.
Reza Gul and Payinda told CNN that Parwana’s father had started selling it against their wishes. “Of course I was angry, I fought with him, and I cried,” said Reza Gul. “He said he had no choice.”
CNN was granted permission to film the sale of a permit on October 24 to a 55-year-old man with white hair for cash, sheep and land for approximately $2,200 (200,000 afghani).
“My father sold me because we don’t have bread, rice and flour,” Parvana told CNN at the time. “He sold me to an old man.”
The buyer, Korban, told CNN it would be his “second marriage” and insisted that Parvana be treated kindly.
Parwana’s mother said that her daughter begged her to return home to her family and was allowed back to their camp.
“She said they beat her, and she doesn’t want to be there,” Reza Gul said.
Parwana said, “They treated me badly, they were cursing me, they were waking me up early and getting me to work.”
According to the family, the community outcry that buyer Korban received prompted him to go into hiding, according to the family, after CNN’s story on the state of the license was published. Since then CNN has not been able to reach him or his family for comment.
In a follow-up CNN interview, Parvana’s father said that he had also come under criticism, and that he felt pressure to change his story on the marriage in interviews with some local media outlets. He confirmed his original interview with CNN and apologized.
About two weeks after her sale, the license was returned to her family, but her father still owed the buyer the equivalent of $2,200. He had used the proceeds to pay off other debts.
‘He gave me a new life’
Parwana and her five siblings were initially tired of the long drives and the sensory overload of the bright city lights and traffic. But once settled, they soon started rolling around and laughing together in bed while enjoying their new adventure.
After two nights at the hotel, the family is moved by Too Young to a nearby safe house on Wade’s team – Parvana’s first experience of living in a real home. For the past four years, the family lived in a tent at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kala-e-Nau in Badghis province.
“I feel very happy in this house,” Parvana told CNN. “He gave me a new life.”
Reza Gul said, “I feel happy and safe here.” “My kids are eating well, they’re playing, and we’re feeling happy since we came.”
The family will stay in the home during the winter months and will be supported and protected by TYTW, which regularly operates these types of rescues.
Long-term plans for Parvana’s family are still unclear, TYTW’s Stephanie Sinclair said, and will depend on funding for the shelter.
“It is a moral imperative that the international community does not spare the women and girls of Afghanistan,” Sinclair said. “Every life matters, and the lives we can (will) save will improve the experience for their entire family and their community.”
Separately, TYTW is also trying to deliver food aid to the Kala-e-Nawa camp, which is home to about 150 people. It also aims to help Parwana’s father as he stays there to try to pay off his debt. He allowed TYTW to have his wife and kids again.
Before the family left, the father said, “We are glad that Parwana has been rescued.” “We are glad that (TYTW) will help us and they will provide a place to live.”
‘tip of the iceberg’
Families across Afghanistan are facing similarly depressing financial conditions.
The CNN report also details two families in northwestern Afghanistan’s Ghor province preparing to sell their young daughters.
When CNN’s report was published, the 10-year-old mugul was just days away from tying the knot. He was threatened with death if the sale was not made.
Sales of the girls have now halted and TYTW is trying to rescue them—along with their mother and siblings—and relocating them to the same shelter where Parwana’s family lives.
Women’s rights activists such as Mehbooba Seraj, who runs a shelter for women and girls in Kabul, say the worst is yet to come for Afghan women.
“This is just the beginning of it, it really is just the tip of the iceberg,” Seraj said. “It will continue to happen, with hunger, with cold, with poverty, with all this ignorance.”
A local Taliban leader told CNN they were trying to end the illegal practice of child marriage.
Mawlawi Baz Mohammad Sarvari, head of the Badghis Information and Cultural Directorate, described the practice as “common” in the region due to extreme poverty.
“Child marriage is not a good thing and we condemn it,” Sarvari said. “Some are forced because they are poor.”
He also appealed to international groups and governments to send aid to save families from starvation.
“We want their help for the Badgi people,” Sarvari said. “We’ll provide them with security; we’ll coordinate with what we have and they’re all allowed to work.”
The ICRC’s Stillhart says governments need to release funds for Afghanistan urgently to keep hospitals and basic services from collapsing.
“I urge the international community to find solutions that allow the maintenance of these essential services,” Stillhart told CNN. “It really requires (a) injection of liquidity and cash because (a) the entire economy in Afghanistan has shrunk by 40% since the end of August due to suspension of bilateral aid.”
Non-profit organizations still working on the ground in Afghanistan are also calling for more coordinated action to help the country’s poorest.
At the local market in Herat, TYTW helped Parwana’s family gather kitchen supplies and food.
Parwana’s mother Reza Gul said, “We used to wake up every night because of hunger.” “Now we are happy that this charity has helped us and brought us to Herat.”
Parwana, who is now free of a life spent with a husband six times her age, is excited about the prospect of going back to school.
“I would like to study to become a doctor,” Parwana said. “I want to study to serve my people.”
For those fighting for women’s rights in Afghan society, Parwana’s determination to achieve a better future for herself and her country offers a glimmer of hope that the next generation of girls will overcome the lack of value placed on their lives. can remove.
CNN’s Jesse Yeung and Jadin Sham contributed reporting.
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