Selling your own children, heartbreaking courage.

Sell ourselves before we would sell our children is a noble sentiment but who would buy us. No longer young, no longer a virgin. As for selling our body for sex, who would pay when they can just take what they want when they want it.
Personally I can not ‘get my head around’ the idea of selling one of my children but neither can ‘get my head around’ being so very desperate that I would consider it.
I have never had to protect my children from starvation, from violence, from serious deprivation of any description and therefore cannot judge.
I have donated money but cannot feel satisfied that that is a solution. We need to fight for action on the ground to wipe out ideologies that treat women and girls as less then human. It is beyond disgusting, horrendous, unimaginable, heartbreaking in the 21st century.
I have no appropriate adjective.

I know that Muslim is not a race, which is why I said "racist or divisive". Good that aid is doubled, though these comments were unhelpful at the time.

Yes, I am a Mother and Grandmother. More than this I am a girl. I was a girl. I did suffer misogyny growing up and I still do- so I am against any form of misogyny. These girls don't even have basic rights to start with, unfortunately.

I think in their position, I would sell myself rather than sell my child, but there might be huge punishments for that and perhaps it's socially acceptable to sell a child?

Callistemon21, my memory is that the generals, military leaders from the US and UK did have the foresight. They were critical and predicted disaster. It’s easy to say the US shouldn’t have reacted to 9/11 by invading, the UK shouldn’t have supported that. It’s easy to agree with that, especially in view of what’s happening now. Some reaction to 9/11 had to happen. Get Bin Laden ?

Iam64

It’s shocking but unsurprising. What an absolute shambles the US and allies have made here. I’m ashamed of our part in the way we walked away, leaving chaos in our wake.
Those children will be worth a lot to the crooks who buy them. There’s a world wide market for child trafficking.

We all did leave too quickly, Iam64 but in fact had spent almost ten years training, supporting and equipping Afghan forces and the Government, to no avail.

It is shocking that no-one seemed to have the foresight what would happen.

I feel so sad when I see some of the negative comments devoid of compassion on here. Many of us have children and grandchildren whom we love, and the thought of them starving and being sold is unbearable, and surely it is to most.
We are so fortunate that we are not having to endure such terrible hardship, and the least we can do is send a donation to a reputable charity working in Afghanistan. Many charities are still working on the ground in Afghanistan and gradually aid is trickling through.

I mentioned a Sky News clip, it's actually BBC - note, there aren't any triggers on this, no children in immediate danger, but I think it gives a small insight - www.youtube.com/watch?v=18SmANbloJw

GillT57

ajswan, your comments are so disgusting that I was going to report them, bur decided to leave them on here for others to consider.

... I thought the same.

The comments were insensitive (to say the least) on so many levels it would be difficult to know where to start to challenge them.

GillT57. I agree and reached the same conclusion.

ajswan, your comments are so disgusting that I was going to report them, bur decided to leave them on here for others to consider.

OnwardandUpward

Unfortunately, empathy and compassion is sincerely lacking in our government, too.

Labelling women as "letterboxes" and making racist or divisive comments by BJ has hardly helped. It actually feels like this country has gone backwards, not forwards- under this government. I think anyone who follows or admires certain politicians, potentially take on these attitudes.

Really I beg to differ
www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-doubles-aid-to-afghanistan
Muslim is not a race, there are many ethnicities who are of the Muslim faith.

This situation is so upsetting. The children were standing in the snow with no shoes.

Surely there is some way we can help them, but how?

I didn't know about this. Babies treated like objects. It's hard to imagine the desperation. I remember seeing children handed over the airport fence during the Anerican evacuation in the hope they would find safety. The best thing to do is keep raising awareness and make sure the world knows about it. Surely something will then be done by people who can. How often the powerful turn a blind eye though. Immeasurably sad. ?

The root cause of all this is the medieval, uneducated, misogynistic mentality of the male-dominated Taliban - and other, similar, power groups.

Islam has been hijacked and abused to suit the agenda of such groups. Modern Technology is shunned - except when it suits the needs of such groups, and education is their number one enemy. Especially the education of women.

Nothing will change until such groups are rendered powerless - and this won't happen for generations yet to come. The West cannot impose its democracy on a people who are a tribal society. The effort was doomed to failure from the start.

All we can do in the meantime is attempt via charitable outlets to alleviate the current suffering of these poor girls, some of whom are mere babies. But for each one helped, another will be sold off.

LondonMzFitz
You make some good points.
For several years the NATO-led security force ISAF was in Afghanistan training Afghan forces, providing security and developing strategies to ensure they could cope as NATO forces could not remain their indefinitely.
ISAF was one of the largest coalitions in history and is NATO’s most challenging mission to date. At its height, the force was more than 130,000 strong, with troops from 51 NATO and partner nations.

As we now know, despite all these years of support and training and gradual transitioning to Afghan-led security, it just crumbled as ISAF left and the Taliban took over.

It's horrible.
It's awful for the girls who are sold.
It's terrible for the kids left behind.
Do the boys suffer something like "Survivor's guilt"?

Misogyny is still rife, in so many places- and it is this at the root. You see it in the baby girl in India, thrown into a river to die, the baby girl in China left with the rubbish or thrown down the toilet. Girls are simply not given the same value as boys, it's heartbreaking.

The bigger picture was that the US & Allied Forces pulled out of Afghanistan with the belief that the Afghan Forces had been trained enough and were in a position to hold power against the Taliban. It quickly became clear that the Afghan Forces that the US and Allied Forces had spent over a decade training were not able to keep control and the Taliban overran them, in weeks rather than the anticipated possible months = subsequently the race in July & August 2021 to get people out. Biden handled it very badly at the end, but the US & Allied Forces couldn't reasonably be expected to remain in Afghanistan indefinitely. With Afghan Forces in power the West could have maintained an involvement that wouldn't leave these people hungry and in such dire want as they now are.

I admit to frustration in the unfair comparison the want of children in the UK and food banks to the absolute dire situation in Afghanistan where the only solution for the poor and hungry is to sell your child. Your daughter. Because boys can go out of the house, if the opportunity is there to be educated, possibly find employment - anyone see the recent 15 minute clip on Sky about the group of Afghan boys, 8-10 year olds, that would go out and shine shoes for a little money? Even that isn't available to the girls.

I don't know what the answer is, There are people out there that get bundles of £'s and have the knowledge to help, some great charities already suggested. This is such an important issue and it needs more public attention.

There was an interview with a New Zealand journalist on the TV this morning, she is 25 weeks pregnant along with her partner they had to flee a nearby Arab Country where it is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried.

Members of the Taliban hierarchy have given them shelter in Kabul as the New Zealand government will not give them permission to return to their home country New Zealand due to their zero Covid policy. She went on to say that the mortality rate for newborns and mothers giving birth has doubled since August. She is both grateful to be safe but worried and frightened at the thought of giving birth in Kabul.

I found this hard to compare to the other news coming out of Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, empathy and compassion is sincerely lacking in our government, too.

Labelling women as "letterboxes" and making racist or divisive comments by BJ has hardly helped. It actually feels like this country has gone backwards, not forwards- under this government. I think anyone who follows or admires certain politicians, potentially take on these attitudes.

ajswan, your comments are full of anger - and lacking in empathy - just more excuses to justify offering no help. Would you ignore a starving baby on your doorstep?

There are more food banks than ever in the UK. Even the homeless are fed daily and I've seen some places that used to feed the homeless daily opening this up to families too.

Many people do help others abroad and thankfully not everyone shares that opinon or there would be no foreign aid. I have heard that the CEO of Water Aid is on silly money, so I wouldn't give to them but to another charity that did a similar thing that was more worthy.

I don't know why the parents look ok but the babies dont. Maybe Adults hold on to body fat better? In many of the starving baby pics, I suspect the mother's milk has dried up (perhaps because of lack of food) or they can't afford formula? Who are we to judge?

Perhaps it's normal to sell your kids in Afghanistan ? Perhaps it's panic taking over? Yes, animals do look after their offspring- but are hardly in a place to sell them- and animals often do starve, so not really a comparison.

At the end of the day, the kids are innocent and deserve better. Even in England, Social Services almost always try to keep families together- providing them access to foodbanks and other helpful things in order to support the family unit. I doubt there are those things in Afghanistan.

Let's concentrate on the children in UK first! Don't you realise how many families are turning to food banks in order to survive, and also families who cannot afford their heating. They are still home schooling their children and having to share a computer between 3 kids. Charity begins at home!

This is a ridiculous sentiment on so many levels.

As far as I am aware, parents are not selling their children - daughters - to old men in the UK in order to feed their families.

You talk as if there's a limited pot of money on the mantlepiece which the government would dearly like to raid to feed our own impoverished people, but can't because there isn't enough in it to go round, so we can't afford to give aid to anyone else.

It doesn't work like that. The government are deliberately imposing austerity on the population because they are small-state, free-market libertarians. They can create money at the drop of a hat - they do it every week. Where do you think the money comes from which is spent on expensive wars and engagements?

There is no need for any family to go without in the UK,.

And finally, there are many charities that give aid, help and support to people in the UK. If someone decides to set up a charity to help those that are in even more dire straits in another country - who are you to say that they should only concentrate on those at "home"?

OnwardandUpward

The girls can legally be married at 8 or 9 I think. It is very heart breaking. There is an underground church there who is helping people with aid, I've donated to them before but it felt inadequate. I might be able to get the name of it if anyone wants it.
I think if people can feed their kids, they won't need to sell them- and really if they do sell them to feed the ones that are left, how long can they continue like that and what must it be like for those siblings that are left? There are no words.

Yes there are words, savages. These people are the lowest of the low. I saw a man being interviewed who was going to sell his tiny Daughter. He didn’t look starving to me. Worse than animals, animals tend to look after their offspring. Even if they can feed their kids I don’t think that make a difference to a cruel ignorant parent. Words fail me. It’s the same when starving babies are paraded and the mothers look okay, these children seem to be of an age when they can eat solid food so why are the parents not dying of starvation. The Water Aid adverts are equally annoying, why do the parents not get the water themselves and boil it instead of sending a small child. Incidentally the CEO of Water Aid has a yearly salary of nearly a quarter of a million !!!!

GrauntyHelen, I see it as an act of desperation. The other option, to allow the family to starve, is just as bad.

GrumpyGrandy 'normal minded'? - the vast majority of Muslims are kind and caring - and just as horrified by the radical few as the rest of us.

What can we do but give to reliable charities and put pressure on our government to respond appropriately? I don't like all the excuses to do nothing.

Heart breaking courage selling a little girl into marriage no that's abuse and trafficking!