By Zulikha Akrami

A dowry or ‘bride price’ may supply a welcome income for a girl’s family in times of economic hardship. But what is the outcome of the dowry? The right to marry or not to marry is a human right. Despite the accepted international bill of human rights, child marriage remains a widespread hidden problem in the world. It is a real, present threat to human rights and economic development.

However, in third-world countries marriage has different purposes and meanings for families. In most Afghan families, a girl is considered the possession of a male family member, who could be her father, brother, or uncle. They are the ones who decide when a girl will marry and who she will marry. According to Afghan Civil Law, girls can marry at the age of sixteen and boys can marry at the minimum age of eighteen.

Yet, a fifteen-year-old girl may get married following her father’s or court's approval (Early Marriage in Afghanistan, 2008). In reality, the age of marriage depends on the girl’s/boy’s family’s social/economical class which in turn determines the age a person will get married at. For instance, in lower-class families, it is not unusual for 13-year-old girls to marry, while in upper-class families, marriage happens at around 18 years of age or older.

In rural areas, marriage could happen at any age, with no exception, which leads Afghanistan to poverty and slows down potential economic growth, because children are not capable of taking care of themselves -- mentally, cognitively, and physically - let alone bringing new offspring into the world. Females of a young age are not able to work and thus cannot not pay taxes to support the government.

A recent ban on contraception will lead to an increase in reproduction among young females. This is not the same as giving a quality life to one or two children, as young mothers may be burdened with carrying for larger families. If children are not capable of taking care of themselves --mentally, cognitively, and physically -- let alone of new offspring, families will be pushed to the brink of instability.

First, giving birth and bringing a new human being into the world has responsibilities. Parents should make sure that children are healthy, safe, and well-equipped with the resources and skills that make them successful as an adult. In most cases, children gain their identity, personality, and maturity from their parents. This might be inherited or might be carried on to the child by the parents’ behavior within the family.

If child marriage occurs, it has an effect on the mother and children’s health, and affects them in different ways. There could be issues such as pregnancy complications, infant mortality, and chronic illness resulting from early marriage (Child Marriage in Afghanistan changing the narrative , 2018). Based on a UNFPA report about a tenth of Afghan female brides aged between 15-19 give birth every year as an effect of child marriage.

On the other hand, girls who are underage and marry as children are probably likely to die due to pregnancy related causes (UNFPA, 2022). In most Afghan families giving birth in the first year of marriage is a must. This occurs without considering the age and capability of the bride, because child marriage is always an arranged marriage. Additionally, due to cultural norms, bringing a child into the world for a new couple is like a chain to connect and lock the couple’s relationship, even if the girl is not satisfied within the marriage.

Child brides and their new born babies are vulnerable to undeveloped cognition, because the child not only needs to acquire knowledge but should also acquire information about the surrounding world. A look into the economy and health care system of Afghanistan shows that, healthcare facilities are not in the priority of the government. In turn, they will continue to worsen and impact society further if there is not enough food on the table to eat.

Primary healthcare facilities are collapsing across Afghanistan. Maternal mortality and child mortality rates will increase. The UNFPA estimates that there could be 51,000 added maternal death and 4.8 million unintended pregnancies without immediate support for women and girls in Afghanistan (Maroof, 2021).  Even if mothers and babies survive childbirth, the child-mother will not be able to take care of another child.

The internal housing culture in Afghanistan makes the child bride responsible for taking care of the in-law’s family, which includes preparing food three times a day, washing clothes, deodorizing, milking, and cleaning the milking shed (if the family has a farm) on a daily basis, for a family average of 8-10 people (Zaher, December 2013). Even if there is support for household work, these responsibilities of undertaking  prolonged tasks decompresses employment opportunity for women.

The legal hours of working in Afghanistan is 40 hours per week, while the business working day starts at 8:00am until 4pm with only a one-hour lunch break. Since most Afghan men do not cooperate and help in household chores due to cultural norms, most women have no choice but to stop their jobs after marriage, in order to maintain their new family home.

Correspondingly, it is clear that child marriage is one of the most significant issues that is prevalent among the illiterate population in Afghanistan. Child marriage interrupts girls’ opportunities to receive proper education and undertake employment (Marriage at an Early Age | Poverty for Afghan Families, 2023). According to Article 13 of the Afghanistan Labor Code, one of the terms of recruitment is supplying secondary or higher-education graduation documents. This is alongside supplying a vocational training document that has been certified by the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and the Disabled. (Afghanistan Code Labor, 1999).

Based on job market requirements, women employees with primary education (partial or completed) earn only slightly more than those with no education at all. Women employees with secondary education make more than twice as much, and higher education is the key here. In Afghanistan, many child marriages happen before girls can complete high school, and even without any prior basic education.

Even if they were able to find a job, the pay is low and it would not be sufficient to feed their family easily, because those who have not received proper education and certification in a specific field, their chances are limited. Thus, the cycle of poverty continues for those forced into early marriage. Due to child marriage, the bride is prevented from acquiring an education, hence their fundamental right is denied. They are instead made responsible for the household chores.

Women are not only losing out on jobs opportunities but are also now banned from working outside of the house. However, girls are not the only victims of child marriage, but boys also face economic problems because of lower incomes due to their lower age and exposure to forced labor, which leads families to be poorer, more prone to violence, and mental issues (Early Marriage in Afghanistan, 2008).

As noted earlier, in Afghanistan having a large family is common. The normalcy of having a large family goes back to Islamic views and traditional customs. In particular, fathers are willing and proud of having more children which is rooted in a mindset of tradition, as they believe that God will provide them with enough food regardless of their circumstances.

For the majority of Afghans, having more children is desirable due to a belief that children will support their parents’ well-being and look after them when they are old. Meanwhile, only a minority of Afghan families do not support this idea reasoning, as they prioritize protecting the health of mothers and care for their children. This is because an increase in reproduction is not the same as giving quality of life to one or two children.

Family planning between child couples is a challenge in Afghanistan, as the child bride is not independent in decision making and is unaware of available contraceptives. This in turn makes females in society a machine for producing newborns. Therefore, the rapid population growth in Afghanistan partly causes the current economic crisis. Under these circumstances, population growth is dangerous since the number of newborn babies increases, but their quality of care decreases.

This is all severely impacted by education attainment and health status, among other factors. For instance, my mother married when she was 17 and had me, her first child, at 19 years old. After me, my mother gave birth to 9 other children. My brother finished his education after high school as he did not pass the university entrance exam. Hence, as my father was the only person in our household working at the time he could not provide my brother with the feeds required to a private university. So currently my brother is working in a machine shop. However, if he was provided with private university funds and had obtained a certification degree, he would not be working as a laborer and would be able to earn more than my income.

Having more children who are in precarious work, are unemployed or have health problems has a negative impact on the financial circumstances of families. The fewer children they have, the more stable their personal economic situation. In Afghanistan, the population is growing at an uncontrolled rate due to the recent ban on contraception. The current political crisis which began in August 2021 led to a serious economic contraction. As a result, household income shrunk, there was a decrease in public spending, consumption, and an increase in food insecurity.

Preliminary official GDP statistics show that the economy contracted by 20.7 percent in 2021 ( The World Bank, 2022). Based on the World Bank findings, Afghanistan’s GDP overview shows that the country is struggling with an increase in reproduction. Therefore, the number of children would result in overpopulation and cause not only major economic issues such as, poverty, and unemployment, but also a lack of literacy, and environmental pollution (Sakhizada, 2023). Thus, child marriage and the ban on contraception, in part, drive the national economy of Afghanistan to poverty and potentially slow down economic development.

In conclusion, a child’s parents if they are not financially independent, emotionally and mentally stable, and in good physical health will not be able to make skilled and successful children. Household chores and school truancy will impeded their employment opportunities. While the ban on contraception, and a general unawareness of birth control will exacerbate poverty and potentially slow down the economic growth. All Afghan families at the societal level, the government at the national level, and the wider community at the international level should prevent child marriage and overpopulation in Afghanistan in order to save the country’s economy and women and girls’ human rights.

Zulikha Akrami is a new writer and Afghan Refugee in the USA. She has an MA degree in International Relations. She wrote pieces for Hashte- Sahib, Rakhshani, and Nemahraikh publications in Persian.  Currently, she is studying a research online program funded by Afghan Research Initiative.

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