Afghanistan is witnessing a sharp increase in child marriages as desperate families sell their daughters to settle debts or buy food, according to interviews with the Guardian and Zan Times. Sima*, 18, has already given birth four times since being forced to marry her cousin at age 13 after the Taliban takeover. She now lives in a mud-brick room in Badghis province, doing all housework while her children cling to her legs, crying. One of her children died of pneumonia at age one.
Rising numbers of underage mothers
Interviews with workers at a public hospital in northern Afghanistan revealed that 42 underage girls gave birth in the first five months of 2025. Six were in their second pregnancy, five had ectopic pregnancies (a leading cause of maternal deaths), and 18 had caesarean sections. Two died, though their babies survived. Shabnam*, a midwife, said: “Since the new government came to power, the number of child mothers has increased dramatically. In the past, perhaps only two child mothers visited the hospital each month, most of whom were from illiterate families. But now, literate and illiterate families marry off their daughters at a young age.”
Taliban policies drive regression
Child marriage is not new to south Asia, but the Taliban takeover reversed a declining trend. Taliban policies legalising the practice, forcing girls out of school, and deepening economic crisis have driven families to sell daughters. A June 2025 UN report put Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate at 600 per 100,000 live births, compared with 16 in Iran, 155 in Pakistan, and 12 in the UK. The report cites restrictions on women in healthcare and a shortage of rural health workers, calling investment in education and female health staff vital.
Shabnam recalled a 2024 case of a 13-year-old who suffered a miscarriage with severe bleeding. When she asked the mother why she allowed her daughter to marry a man nearly 30, the mother said: “To feed my other children, I had to sacrifice one of them.” Some families falsely believe younger mothers produce healthier children, but child mothers face higher risks of severe bleeding, anaemia, miscarriage, obstructed labour, premature birth, and low-weight infants.
Girls sold as toddlers to settle debts
Three families interviewed in western Afghanistan said their daughters had been used to settle debts – money paid in advance, the daughters to be handed over later. The youngest was two months old when promised as a bride, with families pledging to give the girls to future husbands between ages seven and nine. Golnar*, 57, holds her one-year-old granddaughter, sold for future marriage for 200,000 afghani (about £2,380) in cash and debt clearance. “When she turns eight, they will take her from us,” Golnar said. “They gave 100,000 afghani upfront, and they will give another 100,000 after they take the girl from me. We gave it directly to the creditors for the debts.”
Saheb Jan*, 51, pledged away her granddaughter at two months old to settle a debt, with a promise to hand her over at age seven. “We gave this girl away for the debts and that was it,” she said. “God is witness that even now, our living conditions are terrible and miserable.” Sabza*, 44, sold her now seven-year-old daughter when the child was three, for a debt of 300,000 afghani (about £3,570), after returning from Pakistan to find no food and a husband too sick to work. “If there were someone to give us this money, I would be so happy; if my daughter stays with me, I will be overjoyed,” she said. Her other children always ask why she sold their sister. “If my daughter goes to her aunt’s house, she comes back in a panic and asks me where her sister went. I don’t know what state they will be in after she is taken away.”
Education ban and economic distress
Sima is one of more than 2.2 million Afghan girls barred from education above the sixth grade since the Taliban returned to power. A pre-Taliban law criminalised marriage under 15, but a new decree this year set no minimum age. The Afghanistan Human Rights Center reports that one teacher estimated 70% of girls pushed out of school had been driven into forced marriages, while a smaller survey of 15 such girls found 66% under 18. A UN Development Programme report shows three-quarters of Afghanistan’s population (about 28 million people) cannot afford basic needs, and more than 80% of households are in debt. International assistance fell by more than 16% in 2025, closing or restricting hundreds of medical clinics.
Sima’s husband is unemployed; he went to Iran seeking work but returned empty-handed. “Five families live in one compound: my parents, my uncle with his two wives, and my brother with his wife,” said Sima. “Whenever others have something left over, they give it to us. Most of the time, we are hungry.” After the Taliban closed schools and banned women from most public jobs, Sima’s family used her to settle a debt: her father owed his brother 200,000 afghani, and Sima was given to the brother’s son in lieu of a bride price.
*Names have been changed.
