[News] The rescue of Parwana: 9-year-old child bride is taken to safety in Afghanistan

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(CNN)Driving through a snow-capped mountain pass, the young mother huddles together with her six children in the backseat of a car after leaving their makeshift camp in northwestern Afghanistan.

Carrying only a blanket for warmth, 9-year-old Parwana Malik balances on her mother's lap beside her siblings, as the family is rescued by an aid group that saves girls from child marriage.
"I am really happy," Parwana said during the journey. "The (charity) rid me from my husband and my husband is old."
Last month, CNN reported that Parwana and several other underage girls were being sold by their fathers so other members of their families could eat.
At the time, Parwana's father Abdul Malik said she cried day and night before, begging him not to sell her, saying she wanted to go to school and study instead.
After an international outcry as a result of CNN's story, Parwana was returned to her family due to the backlash from the community against the buyer.
The United States-based non-profit Too Young to Wed (TYTW) had also got involved to relocate the girls, their siblings and their mothers to a safe house.
"This is a temporary solution," said Stephanie Sinclair, the founder of TYTW. "(But) really what we're trying to do is prevent girls being sold into marriage."Afghanistan's economic lifelines have been severed since mid-August when the Taliban assumed control after American and allied forces departed. Billions of dollars in central bank assets have been frozen, banks are running out of cash and wages have gone unpaid for months.
Now, aid agencies and rights groups including Human Rights Watch are warning that the country's poorest people are facing a famine as the brutally cold winter takes hold.
More than half of the country's roughly 39 million po[CENSORED]tion will face emergency levels of acute hunger by March, according to a recent report by IPC, which assesses food insecurity. The report estimates that more than 3 million children under the age of five are already suffering acute malnutrition.
"The international community is turning its back as the country teeters on the precipice of man-made catastrophe," said Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who just returned from a six-day visit to Afghanistan.
Even before the Taliban took over, hunger was rife in the impoverished country, and now young girls are paying the price with their bodies -- and their lives.
"Afghan young girls (are) becoming the price of food," leading Afghan women's rights activist Mahbouba Seraj told CNN. "Because otherwise their family will starve."

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/02/asia/afghanistan-parwana-girls-marriage-intl-hnk-dst/index.html