Overview
- New BBC reporting describes Afghan fathers selling or planning to sell underage daughters to survive, including Saeed Ahmad saying he sold his five-year-old for about $3,200 to pay for surgery and Abdul Rashid Azimi saying he plans to sell one of his seven-year-old twins to feed his family.
- The BBC’s post drew sharp pushback online, with a community note on X and critics arguing the coverage treated fathers as victims rather than focusing on harm to the girls.
- The Taliban rejected links between its bans on most female work and schooling and the economic collapse, telling the BBC the United States created an “artificial economy” and left the country with poverty and joblessness.
- UN figures cited in the coverage warn of surging need as nearly three million Afghans are expected to return this year, over half women and children, while humanitarian funding reportedly fell from about $1.62 billion in 2024 to $0.91 billion in 2025.
- The BBC notes daughters are more often sold because sons are seen as future earners and girls face tight limits on schooling and jobs, which pushes families toward child marriage arrangements that bring a payment from a groom’s family.