2022 Year in Review

Families have been selling their
daughters into early marriages in
attempts to have them receive
routine meals and a secure future. If
women and girl’s access to
education continues to be restricted
by the Taliban, the current
humanitarian crisis will continue to
decline. Restricting women's rights
and access to education, as well as
their inclusion within the national
economy, will continue to
exacerbate the economic crisis and
simultaneously infringe Afghan
women and children’s human rights.
Selling babies, young boys, and
primarily underage girls into forced
marriages must be challenged by
the international community.
P H O T O : V I C T O R J . B L U E / N E W Y O R K T I M E S
WHAT NEXT?
The international community must strive to understand the extent of the humanitarian
crisis within Afghanistan, as well as the specific causes and effects of forced early child
marriages. Only when this catastrophe and the environment in which it proliferates is
understood, can it then be applied to produce productive and influential solutions.
Action must be taken by the international community to support, protect, and advocate
for the rights of the world’s most vulnerable. Established policies must be revisited and
discussed through international dialogue, expressing how to better assist the Afghan
population. The United Nations must be engaged and involved in such dialogue,
especially when discussing upholding human rights, the rights of children, and the role
of international aid and humanitarian support. Action must be taken to provide
Afghanistan with crucial humanitarian aid, as well as external pressures on the Taliban to
uphold human rights, in order to save millions of Afghan lives.
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