by Eliana Silver, Daily Mail
Parwana Malik was just nine years old when her father sold her as a bride to a man in his 50s, desperate to find enough money to feed his family.
As tears streamed down his face, Abdul Malik pleaded with the groom to show mercy to his little girl.
‘This is your bride. Please take care of her. You are responsible now, please don’t beat her,’ he said.
Parwana is one of the millions of girls in poverty-stricken Afghanistan forced into under-age marriage, where desperate families have resorted to selling even their newborn babies just to survive.
In late 2021, UN children’s agency Unicef said there were credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old for future marriage in return for a dowry.
And in a practice outlawed by most governments around the world, the Taliban last week formally recognised child marriage under a new law that sets out specific rules governing ‘virgin girls’.