UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Four said in a statement late Friday that some families in Afghanistan had offered their 20-day-old daughters to marry in exchange for dowry.


The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is concerned about the increase in child marriages, especially of girls, in Afghanistan and has called for attention in this regard.

According to the United Nations Fund, 28% of women aged 15 to 49 in the country are married before the age of 18.

UNICEF's executive director, the Covid 19 epidemic, the continuing food crisis and the onset of winter have left many families in the country in trouble, saying that last year, about half of Afghanistan's population did not have access to basic necessities such as clean drinking water.

The UNICEF statement said that even before the recent political instability in the country, UNICEF and other international organizations had registered 183 child marriages and 10 child trafficking cases in 2018 and 2019 in Herat and Badghis provinces.

The United Nations says the children ranged in age from six months to 17 years old and were married and sold by their families during those years.

"The dire economic situation in Afghanistan is pushing more families deeper into poverty and forcing them to make disappointing choices," she said.

UNICEF's Executive Director calls for school-based child education to be the best option to prevent child marriage in Afghanistan, but warns that child marriage under the age of 18 could increase in Afghanistan due to school closures .

The United Nations Children's Fund has said it has new plans to prevent child marriage in Afghanistan. The organization says it is helping cash for the needy and poor families in Afghanistan to prevent child labor and marriage in the country.

UNICEF has also called on the Taliban to open schools to girls in the country as soon as possible and allow female teachers to return to work.