AFGHANISTAN: The Desperation Of Women – Forgotten Women

AFGHANISTAN: The Desperation Of Women

Afghanistan has endured decades of conflict, occupation, and instability, which have profoundly impacted the county and its people. As one of the poorest countries in the world, Afghanistan faces numerous challenges, including widespread poverty, underdevelopment, and ongoing food insecurity. The situation has had a huge impact on the women and children who have no means to escape such dire poverty and daily meals have become a challenge.


The urgency for emergency aid is indeed real and pressing. The mention of women selling their organs and children to survive highlights the severe humanitarian crisis and the extreme vulnerability they are facing

Begging and Selling of Children:

The rise of poverty is forcing more women across the northern regions of Afghanistan to turn to desperate measures to escape the grinding poverty. In households where a male family member is no longer alive or unable to provide due to injury or illness, women often bear the burden of finding ways to support their families, including their children and elderly parents. Street begging is the only options for survival for many of these women. The situation in Afghanistan has reached a dire state, with reports of women being forced to sell their daughters, some as young as four to feed themselves and their families. This heartbreaking choice, driven by continuous starvation and desperation, sometimes becomes the only option for survival, with children being sold for as little as $500. According to the UN, nearly 24 million people in Afghanistan are suffering, with 60% of the population experiencing acute hunger. Among them, approximately 8.7 million Afghans are struggling with severe starvation. These numbers underscore the severity of the humanitarian crisis and the urgent need for survival aid.


Some of these women have 9 or more dependents, knowing their survival is in your hands is a lot of pressure and enough to make any woman turn to extreme measures.

The accounts from the ground are real and deeply troubling, as we work with women like Tahira, Hanifa, Sonya, and Shamsi. Their stories highlight the raw reality of poverty and the severe challenges they face daily. Please take a moment to read these accounts, as they bring to light the urgent and critical conditions these women are enduring.


Tahira’s Account:

My name is Tahira, and I have four children. Our life is very difficult, especially after my husband died six months ago. It was a devastating loss for us. I pay $15 for this little room and some extra for utilities. I have to loan groceries from the local shopkeeper because I can’t afford to buy food. The children get very sad if I don’t cook; they become depressed. A neighbor used to buy us a loaf of bread, but after a while, he said he couldn’t afford it anymore. Now, we are just surviving.

“Somebody came to our home to buy my daughter, when he saw her, he offered me $500. I intended to sell my daughter as we have no food.”


Somebody came to our home to buy my daughter Mahnaz, who is only four years old. When he saw her, he offered me $500.
 I intended to sell Mahnaz and asked if I could see her sometimes after the sale. He said that after he gave me the money, I would never see my daughter again. That really struck me. My sister stopped me from selling Mahnaz, but I told her I had no choice. We haven’t eaten anything for three days. She suggested I start begging at people’s doors, but I told her I’ve been begging on the streets for six months, and nobody helps. I went to the doctor because I haven’t been feeling well. My little daughter was saying, “Please sell me and get the money to cure yourself.” I cried and said, “I must die before that ever happens.”


Hanifa’s Account:

“My name is Hanifa, and I have six children. I lost my husband and my daughter in a suicide attack, which has been incredibly hard to deal with. I do odd jobs like laundry and washing people’s clothes and carpets to earn money. The work is very hard on my body; I suffer from severe back pain, and it even hurts to turn my head to the side. Despite the pain, I must keep working to support my family. My ten-year-old son also works on the streets, washing cars. However, we don’t earn enough money to buy food, and most nights we go to sleep hungry. When I wake up in the morning, one of my children will ask for food, and another will say, ‘Mum, my hands and feet are freezing.’ I try to find discarded shoes and clothes on the streets to keep our home warm.”

When I lost my daughter, I could not afford a taxi to bring her body home from hospital.”

 

“There is never much in the house to cook for them. I asked my neighbor for a bowl of flour, but they didn’t even open their door. I pay $20 for this room, which doesn’t have any water or electricity, and I have no money to pay the rent. When I lost my daughter, I couldn’t afford a taxi to bring her body home from the hospital. Every taxi driver demanded $10 because of the dead body. I was begging and crying, telling them I would hold the body in my arms. I have small children, and one of them is disabled. My daughter has lost her hearing, and my son has mental health issues. I do not want to lose my children; losing my lovely daughter was already too much.”

 


Shamsi’s Account:

I am Shamsi, and I have four children. My husband went to Iran because he could not find a job here. He wanted to work there to provide a living. We waited for him for over a year but he has never returned home. It has been four years since I am a single mother and providing for my children. It is very hard to live in Afghanistan, before it was a bit better as I could find work here and there but now there is no work, everything has become static. There is a hospital I used to work in as a part-time janitor, even they cannot afford to give me a job. Sometimes they offer me to wash some patients’ clothes and bedsheets. On a good week I will be paid $2. I buy food for my children with that money, which is not sufficient for us. I cannot afford to heat my home. I cannot afford to feed my children. One small container of cooking oil is $1.50.

“My children complain all the time, they say other people cook big, yellow and peeled potatoes, unlike us, small, dark, with peels. I answer how could I peel them? They are already too small.”

 

“I cannot even afford to buy a loaf of bread. Two or three days a week, I manage to buy some small potatoes or low-quality rice and boil them. My children complain that others have big, yellow, peeled potatoes, while we only have small, dark ones with peels. I tell them that I can’t peel them because they are already too small.

One of the neighbors kindly gave us a heater since it gets very cold at night. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to buy wood to heat our home. I send my sons to collect plastic bottles from the streets, and we burn them to heat water. They ask why I wake them up in the mornings to collect plastic bottles, while other children go to school and participate in clubs. Life is very difficult, and I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.”

 


Sonya’s Account:

I am Sonya, a widow with three children. My children work on the streets as beggars (Spandi). We have no other choice but to beg on the streets; I sit at the mosque gates and beg. No one would mistake me for a prostitute as I go out daily; everyone knows I’m a beggar. I feel like I am the most miserable woman in the world because, as far back as I can remember, I have never seen a good day. We have no flour, sugar, or tea at home—nothing to eat. We struggle a lot just to find even a morsel to eat once a day.

We have always been people of honour and I hate myself for having to beg but I have no choice.

 

The landlord demands the rent on time, and there are grocery expenses and bills to pay. I often worry about how I will manage everything. The cycle seems endless, as my children do not go to school; they get up at sunrise and return at 9 PM after a day of begging, earning just 45p a day. I want a bright future for my children. I want them to go to school and get educated. I try hard to fulfill all their needs and take care of them, but unfortunately, I feel helpless because I am a woman. God has taken their father from us, and if he were alive, they would never be in such misery today. We have always been people of honour, and I hate myself for having to beg, but I have no other choice.

 

War crimes

Since the occupation, horrendous acts of violence, including sexual assault, rape, and killing, have been committed against women and children. Some of these crimes have been reported and justice has been served, but many have gone unreported and, in some cases, dismissed, the ones that suffer the most were women and children:

1. Nearly 6,000 instances of sexual violence against Afghan boys between 2010-2016 were reported during the last occupation, with no actions taken in response
2. Many deadly strikes occurred in undefended homes and densely populated neighborhoods throughout the War in Afghanistan. For example, in 2008, an airstrike “against a target of opportunity” killed 47 civilians who were traveling to attend a wedding in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Among those killed were 39 women and children
3. Prisoners were reportedly “chained to the ceiling” and “beaten to death.”
4. During the war in Afghanistan, the use of cluster munitions, dropping nearly 1,228 cluster bombs between 2001-2002
5. Sexual assault, rape, and the killing of Afghan women and children were pervasive throughout the years the country was occupied

 

What We Are Doing

The women of Afghanistan need your help today as they start to rebuild their lives

1. Emergency Aid £60 1 family, 5 families £300, 10 families £600
2. Food Truck: £8,500 (170 families)  

Watch full accounts by clicking HERE

AFGHANISTAN: The Desperation Of Women

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