KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Two girls, aged six and eight, were married to men aged 60 and 80 in exchange for money in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, local sources reported, amid a sharp rise in child marriages across the country.
According to the sources, a six-year-old girl was married to a 60-year-old man for 200,000 Pakistani rupees (about $720) in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. The girl’s father confirmed that he arranged the marriage in exchange for the payment.
In a separate case in Lashkar Gah two days earlier, an eight-year-old girl was married to an 80-year-old man in exchange for a “large sum of money”, the sources said
Local Taliban authorities confirmed both marriages and said that they annulled them after learning of the cases.
The incidents come amid a sharp rise in forced and child marriages across Afghanistan in recent years, particularly in southern provinces under heavy Taliban influence. Widespread poverty, economic hardship and restrictions on women and girls have led some families to marry off their children or exchange them for money.
In recent months, U.N. experts, rights groups and activists have also raised concerns over several Taliban decrees and policies, particularly the recently introduced Decree No. 18 on the conditions for spousal separation. They say the decree effectively legalizes child marriage and make it extremely difficult for women and girls to report abuse or leave abusive relationships.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that underage marriage places girls’ lives and health at serious risk. Many face domestic abuse as well as the dangers of early pregnancy and childbirth complications, which rank among the leading causes of death among adolescent girls.
