child marriage Afghanistan
© AP Photo/ Fraidoon Pooyaa
Since 2009, child marriage has been prohibited at the legislative level in Afghanistan and according to the civil code of the country girls can marry from the age of 16. However, forced marriages are still happening at a much earlier age. Sputnik takes a look at some of the reasons behind this issue.

Recently a heart wrenching video appeared online in which an Afghan man in a rural setting was trying to marry off his daughter by force.

The little girl in front of everyone started screaming that she does not want to get married while her mother, who was also against the marriage was weeping and trying to hold on to her child as the men were dragging the girl away by force.


In April, the Ministry of Women's Affairs developed and approved an unprecedented draft of the National Plan for the eradication of the tradition of child marriage. The first lady of the country Rula Ghani was one of the most ardent supporters of the implementation of this plan.

In an interview with Sputnik, Laal Gol Lal, director of the Human Rights Organization in Afghanistan, said that, despite all initiatives, the situation of children does not change and one of the main reasons for that is poverty.

"Many Afghan families contract marriages immediately after the birth of the child. For example, when I was in the second grade, I was married to my uncle's two-year-old daughter. Fortunately, our life together is fine but there are very few such cases," Lal said.

According to the expert such cases in the country, especially in rural areas, are not uncommon.


Fareema,7, plays outside during a wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan
© AP PHOTO/ LYNNE SLADKYFareema,7, plays outside during a wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan
"Now there are fewer such cases across the country, but Afghanistan is a country inhabited by tribes and this tradition still prevails in some families," he said. He further said that unfortunately, in Afghanistan there is no possibility to collect accurate data, so the authorities and law enforcement agencies of the country are uninformed and cannot take much action against such cases.

​"In Afghanistan there is a ministry for women's affairs and such cases are in its competence. However, the ministry is deprived of the opportunity to consider such cases or prevent them from occurring," Lal said.

According to the expert the main reason for child marriages is lack of information regarding women's rights, illiteracy and poverty.

"People are so poor that children are not raised but are sold like cattle. Some girls that have been sold by their parents commit suicide. For example, one 17-year-old girl from Taloqan, in protest drank poison and died," the expert said.

But the civil society and human rights defenders in Afghanistan are in favor of passing a law respecting human rights and rights of family.

"The corresponding law is currently under consideration in the Ministry of Justice and I hope that after discussion in the lower house and approval at the top, it will be adopted and will enter into force," Lal concluded.

Although getting concrete data is difficult, the most recent surveys estimate some 46 percent of Afghani women are married by age 18 and about 15 percent of them before the age of 15.

According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, between 60-80 percent of all marriages in Afghanistan are forced.

Afghanistan has been in a state of political and social turmoil, with government forces fighting the continuing Taliban insurgency. The instability has persisted in the country since the 2001 US-led invasion to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Furthermore lack of control and instability turned the country into the home to the largest opium poppy production and distribution network in the world.