Afghan Father Forced to Sell His 7 Year Old Daughter to Feed His Family

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]You have to see it to believe it. This is some next level [ __ ] I have no words.

[00:00:09]You have to see this. This country is reeling under one of the worst hunger crisis in the world.

[00:00:17]Caused by a swirl of factors.

[00:00:21]International aid cuts, the Taliban government's policies, and natural disasters.

[00:00:27]Now, Well, here's problem number one.

[00:00:30]The country is ran by Taliban.

[00:00:33]>> [laughter] >> For starters.

[00:00:35]Three in four Afghans can't meet basic needs.

[00:00:40]We've driven into the rural communities nearby.

[00:00:43]At Abdul Rashid Azimi's home, we're suddenly confronted by the devastating impact.

[00:00:50]He calls for his daughters. Ruqaiya and Rohila are twins. They're seven.

[00:00:56]Abdul is eager to explain why he's making unbearable choices.

[00:01:01]>> [snorts] >> I'm ready to sell my daughters.

[00:01:19]>> [clears throat] >> Are we supposed to feel bad for this guy?

[00:01:29]That his life has gotten so bad that he's ready to sell his own daughters?

[00:01:41]This is some next level crazy [ __ ] Crazy talk.

[00:01:49]Crazy The cultures in the Western world are so different.

[00:01:56]They are so different, and here is the different that the major the the huge shift difference is right here. Can you imagine when if somebody was so poor, I mean it wouldn't happen in the in the in America, that they are ready to sell their daughters probably to Taliban.

[00:02:20]Probably for a sex trafficking or something even I I I was going to say something even worse, but I don't think there's anything worse than that. Little children.

[00:02:28]And you're supposed to feel bad for this guy. I'm poor and in debt.

[00:02:36]I come home with parched lips, distressed and confused. My children come to me saying Bob And don't get me wrong. I feel really really really bad for those little girls all of them all the kids. This is terrible. This is a failed state country is ran by terrorists, really.

[00:02:56]It's ran by Taliban. I mean There's no other way of saying it. Bob, give us some bread.

[00:03:09]But what can I give? Where is the work so I can earn?

[00:03:13]It breaks my heart, but it's the only way to feed my other children, Abdul says.

[00:03:22]Maybe don't have so many kids.

[00:03:26]Abdul's young sons already work shining shoes in the market. Culturally, boys are seen as breadwinners, which is now >> Yeah, ain't much for that. uh more ingrained because of the Taliban government's restrictions on women and girls. There it is.

[00:03:42]>> And so when families think of doing the unimaginable, selling their children, that usually means girls.

[00:03:49]>> Crazy. And there are many such stories.

[00:03:52]>> Holy [ __ ] >> In every home we went to, people told us they're being pushed to the brink.

[00:04:05]Five-year-old Shaika needed surgery for appendicitis.

[00:04:10]Her father, Sayed Ahmad, had no money.

[00:04:12]And so he agreed to sell his daughter for 200,000 Afghani, just over $3,000.

[00:04:23]If I had money, I would have never taken this decision. But then I got scared.

[00:04:28]What if she died without the surgery?

[00:04:32]When she's 10, Shaika will go to the home of the distant relative who's bought her to marry his son.

[00:04:40]Child marriages are widespread in Afghanistan. One, two, three, four children. Why are these people having kids when they can't even provide for their own selves?

[00:04:53]I don't understand. Why do have eight children?

[00:04:56]It it it it has to be a cultural thing that I just don't get.

[00:05:01]Why create suffer?

[00:05:05]And are becoming even more prevalent now because girls are barred from education.

[00:05:14]Giving away your child at such a young age carries a lot of anxiety.

[00:05:19]Underage marriages have their problems, but I've done it because this way at least she will be alive.

[00:05:27]Oh, yeah.

[00:05:28]You're such a nice father.

[00:05:30]These are communities >> Hey, honey, let's have seven kids. We can't The roof is leaking.

[00:05:36]that used to receive food aid until a few years ago.

[00:05:41]But now they've been left to fend for themselves with funding drying up.

[00:05:47]People gather around us eager to speak.

[00:05:53]"We've had help from no one, not from NGOs, not from the government." Abdul Malik tells us.

[00:06:00]Next to him, Muhammad Hashim says his 1-year-old baby girl died because she was sick and hungry.

[00:06:07]He had no food or medicines to give her.

[00:06:13]Wow. When deaths occur in communities like these, they're not recorded anywhere. We've been hearing testimonies from the people about an increased number of children dying in the past couple of years. They attribute those deaths to malnutrition. The only place we can actually see the evidence of that is in the graveyard. So, we've come to the community graveyard. We've done this before. We've actually counted all of the graves here. The smaller graves, 130. That's a staggering number, nearly twice as many as those of adults.

[00:06:44][clears throat] Evidence, again, of an invisible wave of deaths among Afghan children.

[00:06:53]This is disaster.

[00:06:54]>> This is the morning rush at Khost Provincial Hospital.

[00:06:59]In the past 4 years, we've been to dozens of medical facilities across this country, and this is now become a familiar sight. Hundreds of sick children being brought in by their parents. 3 years ago, we came to this particular hospital as well, and this time around, already, just by looking at it, I can tell you the situation is worse.

[00:07:20]Hunger makes children vulnerable to disease.

[00:07:25]The best hospitals in the world would struggle to manage this load.

[00:07:31]In Afghanistan, it's severely depleted medical facilities like this one which try every day to provide a feeble lifeline to those at risk.

[00:07:41]I can't I don't know if I can keep watching this, you guys. These tiny babies, so young that most have not been named, are the most vulnerable.

[00:07:52]Underweight, struggling to breathe >> Jesus.

[00:07:55]>> because their mothers didn't have enough to eat when they were carrying them.

[00:08:04]A nurse wheels in twin babies who've just been born.

[00:08:09]They need urgent help.

[00:08:12]The only place >> Yeah, I don't know if I can keep watching that. It's pretty depressing.

[00:08:16]And then so what happens then? So with specifically um these men, so what they do is they're going to try to seek an asylum in uh in Europe and and what? And get help from the government and then they'll have 20 more children and then they won't work because the more kids you have the more assistance you get from the government and then the European countries have to pay for those they have to pay taxes for those 20 children that they have and then next thing you know, you have more and more and more of these people coming and having thousands of children on your expense and next thing you know, Europe does not I'm I'm just saying, dude. That's just straight up how it's how it's going to look. Next thing you know, uh Europe is not what it used to be and people can come in here and say whatever the hell they want, but that's just that's just the data. That's just the raw data that's just been actually what's been happening.

[00:09:30]Uh and the culture is so different. I there's got to be a different way to do this and they make people look bad when like for example in Poland where they don't let people in like that easy. They just they have a different way of doing things.

[00:09:50]And I don't know what those things are, but I know it works. I know Poland doesn't do that kind of [ __ ] So I man, I I'm learning I'm just now learning all about this stuff and my perspective on all of this has changed so much in the last year that it it it it's crazy when you start digging deep into it how intense this whole system and how they make you feel like you Oh, so you're you you're you're racist or you're against this and that.

[00:10:20]That's is messed up. No, no, no, no, no.

[00:10:22]No, it does not work. You can look at Germany for example. You can look at France. You can look at all these countries. It it's it's it's a huge problem.

[00:10:33]The government can't take care of their own people that are born in Germany, you know, or in France. Now they have all these other people coming in and having 200,000 children and then they get all these money from the government from you, from people that are hard working in France and Germany and they wonder why they can't afford food. Hard working people can't afford food because they're paying for these people that have 200 children.

[00:11:03]So you know, you might call me what you want to call me, but it it's starting to make sense in my head.

[00:11:10]That's that's kind of where I'm at on that.