Afghanistan: Man sells 9-year-old daughter to buy food, begs 55-year-old husband not to beat her
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
What happens when the man runs out of food again?
Observe there is a similarity between the 55-year-old man who is now the husband of a 9-year-old girl and the famous story of Aisha and Muhammad:
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).
Muhammad was in his 50’s.
The Afghan father also pleaded with the 55-year-old man not to beat his little daughter. Consider another account of Muhammad and Aisha: Aisha says in a hadith that Muhammad “struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: ‘Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?’” — Sahih Muslim 2127
Also….
“Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.” Quran 4:34
As sickening as it is to read about a man begging for his daughter not to be beaten after selling her off to a 55-year-old man in marriage, it is even worse to think about the rape of this young girl as a child bride. Beatings will most likely follow, as per the Quran.
“‘This is your bride…please don’t beat her’: Heart-breaking moment Afghan father pleads with 55-year-old man as he is forced to sell his daughter, aged NINE, to him so he can buy food,” by Rachael Bunyan, MailOnline, November 2, 2021:
An Afghan father who has been forced to sell his nine-year-old daughter to a 55-year-old man as a child bride so he can buy food has pleaded for his child’s new husband not to beat her.
Parwana Malik, nine, is being sold by her parents to a stranger who the youngster describes as an ‘old man’ due to his white beard and eyebrows.
On the day Parwana was taken away by her 55-year-old buyer, Qorban, her weeping father, Abdul Malik, pleaded for him to not hurt his child, reports CNN.
Abdul, who is ‘broken’ with guilt, broke down in tears as he told Qorban: ‘This is your bride. Please take care of her. You are responsible now, please don’t beat her.’
Parwana’s family said they had no choice, and are among scores of destitute families who being forced to sell their young daughters into marriage to survive, as Afghanistan plunges further into a humanitarian crisis.
One girl, aged 10, spends her days crying as she waits for the day she is sold to a 70-year-old man to help her family pay off their debts.
Another nine-member family is preparing to sell their four-year-old and nine-year-old daughters to have enough money for food.
Parwana and her family have been living in an Afghan displacement camp in northwestern Badghis province for the past four years. They have survived on humanitarian aid and work which earns them around £2 a day.
But since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, the country’s economy is on the brink of collapse and international humanitarian aid has been put on hold – and the effects are deeply felt by families such as Parwana’s who cannot buy basic goods such as food.
Abdul was forced to sell Parwana’s 12-year-old sister months ago to help his family survive.
Parwana, her small face peeping out from her pale pink hijab, told CNN: ‘My father has sold me because we don’t have bread, rice or flour. He has sold me to an old man.’…..