Afghan parents sells their children to pay off debts: Report

According to the Wall Street Journal, people in Afghanistan who are struggling with poverty are being forced to sell their children. Saleha, a house cleaner living in western Afghanistan, sold her 3-year-old daughter to a man she owed $550. Salesha, 40, receives 70 cents a day from her job, and her husband is unemployed, the Journal reported. Saleha said that if life continues to be this awful, he will kill his children and himself. ‘The family has no idea what they will eat for dinner tonight. I will find money to save my daughter’s life,’ husband Abdul Wahab said.

Khalid Ahmad, who lent the money to the girl, told the Journal he had to accept the 3-year-old to settle the debt. ‘I also don’t have money. They haven’t paid me back. So there is no option but taking the daughter, ‘he said. UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Director Kanni Wignaraja stated last month that Afghanistan is headed toward ‘universal poverty’ following the Taliban’s swift takeover. Within a year, the poverty rate in Afghanistan will reach a whopping 97% or 98%, he added.

President Biden drew American troops out of the area after 20 years of trying to rid the country of extremists, which led to the Taliban’s entry into the country. As part of its takeover, the Taliban renamed the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, reverting to the name used during the last time that the regime held power, in 1996. After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the regime remained in power.

As a result of the US’ ousting of the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan has made several developmental gains, including doubling income per capita and increasing the average years of education per person. Despite significant economic gains over the last two decades, Afghanistan’s economy is now in danger of collapsing due to political instability. This instability is exacerbated by the pandemic.

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In an effort to limit the Taliban’s resources, the Biden administration froze nearly $10 billion in reserves held by the country’s central bank – most of which is reportedly held by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Shah Mehrabi, a senior board member of Da Afghanistan Bank, told Bloomberg that the move has been criticized as misdirected and will hurt Afghans more than the Taliban.