The article I chose this week is titled Selling Little Girls to Pay Back
Debt. An Afghan woman has to make the unbearable choice of giving her 6
year old daughter up in trade for her husband who was been held
hostage. The father of the young girl did what many Afghan farmers do,
he borrowed money from drug traffickers to produce his own poppy farm.
Opium, which is extracted from the poppy plants, is the raw source of
heroin. Though it is an illegal industry, it is popularized as it
produces a significant amount of revenue. The Afghan government has
become increasingly strict and is starting to destroy illegal crops.
Since the father's farm was destroyed, the little girl has to be held as
collateral for the loan. When these families have to give up their
children they will most likely be taken to other countries such as
Pakistan or Iran where they will be used for transporting drugs or
forced into the sex slave industry. Even if the children escape, they
live the remainder of their life in fear that their capturer will return
to take them back or even worse murder them.
When I read this
article I can't help but question how this could even be a choice for
the mother. Why set your daughter up for a future of misery to free your
husband who has lived a longer life? As I read the article further I see that there was an instance
where a man refused to give his daughter away and in return was
beheaded with a pen knife. This is obviously a horrible outcome of this
situation, but another aspect of this would be losing the main lifeline
of your family. Obviously it would be unfathomable to find out that your
husband has been killed, but also if the husband dies, there will be no
income to provide for the family. Woman in Afghanistan don't normally
work. So for the man of the household to be murdered means more than
just losing a loved one, It means losing a whole way of life.
Source:
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/25/selling-little-girls-to-payback-debt/?hpt=hp_c4
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