The Times of London has a report out this morning going viral on Twitter alleging that things have gotten so bad in Afghanistan that a father attempted to sell his 4-year-old daughter to get money to feed his family:
So fast is the rush to sell and flee amid Afghanistan's diminishing economy that Jada-e Maiwand, a bazaar, has spilt from its usual confines onto the banks of Kabul's River
This is where @A_Loyd_Times found a father trying to sell his 4-year-old daughterhttps://t.co/xdjjuhKNzW
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
The father in this story is reportedly a former police officer, which really should have us questioning the quality of the police force if this is what he’d do:
The value of the afghani has tumbled since the Taliban seized Kabul, resulting in a pawnbroker offering about £170 for the child.
Her father, a broken police officer trying to ward starvation away from a family of seven, was holding out to pawn his daughter for about £420.
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
He justified selling his daughter as his only option:
“I would prefer to die than be reduced to selling my daughter,” Says Mir Nazir. “But my own death wouldn’t save anyone in my family. Who would feed my other children?” pic.twitter.com/GEdlNzMHlS
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
Mir Nazir had lost his job with the police in Ghazni and fled to Kabul with his wife and five children days before the Taliban seized the capital. Now he was a bazaar porter. His rent outstripped his wages. The family were hungry, and there was no relief in sight.
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
And he “just can’t see what else [he] can do”:
Mir Nazir had a message for us:
“Don’t think I am any different to you. Don’t think I didn’t love the baby child I brought into the world and have loved her ever since, don’t think I am not distraught at the thought of selling my daughter – I just can’t see what else I can do.”
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
Recommended
Why is the journo humanizing this piece of s*it?
Why is this reporter humanizing a human trafficker? this is not good parenting this is not a father at the end of their rope this is a man that has no problem selling a four-year-old into sex slavery don’t get it twisted @thetimes https://t.co/nkZ63ytTxK
— Maysoon (@maysoonzayid) September 9, 2021
It really is awful:
Yo @A_Loyd_Times What the hell is this!? A sympathetic piece on sex traffickers? the child being sold barely humanized what is this? https://t.co/nkZ63ytTxK
— Maysoon (@maysoonzayid) September 9, 2021
More from The Times:
While the outside world fulminates over the rise of the Taliban, the chaos of the evacuation and the shame of the US-led withdrawal, Afghans have already moved on to confront a far greater threat they face: abject poverty and the spectre of starvation. pic.twitter.com/mr7z2pdamO
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
The Afghan economy, already sick before the victory of the Taliban has been kicked off a ledge.
The World Bank has halted aid to Afghanistan. The IMF has blocked access to $460 million in emergency reserves, and the US has blocked about $7 billion in Afghan bank reserves. pic.twitter.com/cHwn5EbXZ8
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
For a country with a cash-based informal economy in which 75% of public spending is dependent on foreign support, the severing of foreign cash lines has been catastrophic. Food prices have risen and hundreds of thousands of security sector and government workers are unemployed.
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
The former governor of the country’s central bank, Ajmal Ahmady, observed that analysts who suggested China and Pakistan would become Afghanistan’s financial supporters were unrealistic, as Afghanistan and the central bank were likely to be sanctioned entities.
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
The country’s physical cash supply is dwindling as the printing firms that produce afghani notes abroad, notably Poland and France, are probably unable to deliver the billions of afghanis agreed in existing contracts.
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
Not everyone is miserable. Overseeing the destitution of their fellow Afghans, the dealers in the bazaar along the Kabul River admit they have never had it so good, and most talked about a 50% profit rise since August 15. pic.twitter.com/SKe8U2ke8G
— The Times (@thetimes) September 9, 2021
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