Afghan Children; From School Dreams to the Bitter Reality of Early Marriage

Kabul Times News | Universal Children's Day

Universal Children's Day; When a Child in Afghanistan Becomes a Victim of Forced Marriage.

Universal Children's Day; A Day to Protect Childhood, Not Its End. A Day to Defend the Right to Play, Education, Security, and Dreams of Children Who Unwittingly and Unknowingly Become Husbands and Wives.

Today is Universal Children's Day; A Day When the World Speaks of Children's Rights, Educational Opportunities, Security, and Their Bright Futures. But in Afghanistan, Thousands of Children Are Still Deprived of Their Most Basic Rights, and a Number of Them Are Fallen Victims of Early and Forced Marriages.

Children Who Were Entertaining Their Dolls and Toys Until Yesterday, Suddenly, Without Knowing or Choosing, They Entertained in Married Life. Young Girls Who Still Do Not Know the Meaning of Youth and Living Together Are Forced to Take on Responsibilities That Even Many Adults Are Not Ready for.

In some cases, young boys are also forced to marry due to wrong traditions and customs. Sometimes they are forced to marry widows or girls with a significant age difference; decisions that are imposed not by choice, but based on compulsion, social pressure and ignorance.

Childhood is a season of growth, education, play and building the future; not a time for marriage, forced motherhood and accepting the heavy responsibilities of life. No law and no justification can legitimately take away the right to be a child from a child.

When girls are placed at the wedding table instead of sitting at the school desk, the hope for a bright future also fades. Children who should be in search of knowledge, skills and their dreams are forced to enter the world of adulthood prematurely.

For many children, all the dreams of that time are summed up in dolls, games and childish wishes; But the wrong decisions of adults can destroy these dreams in an instant and take them away from the natural path of life.

On International Children's Day, silence in the face of the phenomenon of child marriage means ignoring the suffering of thousands of children, especially girls, who have been deprived of their right to choose, their right to education, and their right to childhood.

We should not remain silent in the face of this reality. The future of every society depends on children who grow up informed, educated, and educated, and who, at the right time, make decisions about life and family formation with full awareness and free choice.

Report: Shahpour Naibzadeh