娘を花嫁として売る親たち　アフガニスタンを襲う飢えと貧困

【カライノウＡＦＰ＝時事】干ばつに見舞われたアフガニスタン西部。家族で生き延びるため、夫が２人の幼い娘を花嫁として売って以来、妻のファヒマさんは泣いてばかりいる。（写真は花嫁として売られたファリシテちゃん。アフガニスタン西部バドギス州カライノウの避難民キャンプで）
　泥れんがと防水シートでできた国内避難民用のテントの中に、６歳のファリシテちゃんと１歳半のショクリヤちゃんが並んで座っていた。本人たちは、自分が売られたことを知らない。
　「夫に言われました。娘たちを手放さなければ、みんなが死ぬことになる。食べる物が全然ないんだぞって」とファヒマさんは語った。アフガニスタンでは、多数の家族が同じ選択を迫られている。
　ファリシテちゃんには３３５０ドル（約３８万円）の値が付いた。歩き始めたばかりのショクリヤちゃんは２８００ドル（約３２万円）。婚家に入るまでの数年間、分割払いされる。２人の結婚相手も未成年だ。
　児童婚はアフガニスタンで何世紀も前から続いてきた慣習だが、戦争や気候変動で多くの家族が貧困にあえぎ、より幼いうちから娘を結婚させるようになっている。
　息子を持つ親たちは、値切り交渉をしながら、より幼い女子を獲得する。
　１０月下旬、国連の世界食糧計画（ＷＦＰ）は、アフガニスタン人口の半数以上に当たる約２２８０万人が１１月以降、急性の飢餓に直面すると警告した。
　アフガニスタン西部バドギス州も、干ばつによる大きな被害を受けている。州都カライノウでは、家族を養えず、離れ離れになるしかない状況を恥じて悲しむ親たちが少なくない。
　村の首長や避難民キャンプのリーダーによると、多数の国民が飢えに苦しんだ２０１８年も、幼い頃から婚約させられる女子が増えたが、雨が降らなくなった今年もその数は急増している。
　住む家を失い、娘を花嫁として売る決断を下した農家を取材で探すと、すぐに十数世帯見つかった。
　ファヒマさんの隣人グルビビさんは、避難民キャンプにいる多くの家族が児童婚という手段を選んだことを認めた。
　自身の娘アショーちゃんは１０歳に満たないが、グルビビさんが借金をしている相手の家族で２３歳の男性と婚約している。婚約者は今、隣国イランに住んでいるが、帰国する日をグルビビさんは恐れている。

■「娘たちには、あれから一度も会っていない」
　カライノウ市内の別の避難民キャンプで、ムハンマド・アッサンさんは、２人の娘の写真をＡＦＰに見せながら涙を拭った。９歳のシアナちゃんと６歳のエディグルちゃんは現在、年若い結婚相手と一緒に遠方に住んでいる。
　「娘たちには、あれから一度も会っていません」とアッサンさんは言う。「こんなこと、私たちだってしたくはなかった。でも他の子らにも食べさせなければならなかったのです」
　アッサンさんは隣人に分けてもらったパンのかけらを見せながら、こう続けた。「娘たちは向こうではいい暮らしをしているはずです。食べ物もあって」
　アッサンさんの妻ダドグルさんは病気で、医療費がかさんでいる。そこで、アッサンさんは４歳の娘の結婚相手も探し始めている。
　母親たちはいつまでも嘆き悲しみ、心痛から解き放たれることはない。
　夫に先立たれたラビアさん（４３）は、娘と別れる日を先延ばしにするため、あらゆる手を尽くしてきた。
　娘のハビベさんは１２歳になり、今年９月には婚家に移り住むことになっていたが、母親ともう１年一緒に暮らしたいと懇願した。「お母さんと一緒にいたい」とハビベさんは小声で言った。
　家族を養う余裕があれば、ラビアさんはハビベさんを取り戻すために５５０ドル（約６万３０００円）を突き返すだろう。
　１１歳の息子はパン店で働いて１日５０セント（約５７円）を稼ぎ、９歳の息子はごみ拾いで３０セント（約３４円）をもらって帰って来る。今年は厳しい冬になりそうだ。
　「母親として胸が張り裂けそうです。でも息子たちのことも守らなければなりません」とラビアさんは話した。
　今年８月にアフガニスタンを掌握したイスラム主義組織タリバン政権の下でバドギス州の知事代理を務めるマウルビ・アブドル・サタール氏は、ＡＦＰに次のように語った。「こうした児童婚は経済問題が原因だ。イスラム首長国（アフガニスタン）が課したいかなる規則もシャリア（イスラム法）も、原因ではない」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/11/18-13:16）

Fahima has wept many times since her husband sold their two young daughters into marriage to survive the drought gripping western Afghanistan.
Oblivious to the deal, six-year-old Faristeh and 18-month-old Shokriya sit by her side in a mud-brick and tarpaulin shelter for displaced people.
My husband said if we don't give away our daughters, we will all die because we don't have anything to eat, Fahima said of the choice now facing thousands of Afghan families.
I feel bad giving away my daughters for money.
The oldest commanded a bride price of $3,350 and the toddler $2,800 -- to be paid in instalments over several years until the time comes to join their new families, their future husbands still minors themselves.
Child marriage has been practised in Afghanistan for centuries, but war and climate change-related poverty have driven many families to resort to striking deals earlier and earlier in girls' lives.
Boys' parents can drive a harder bargain and secure younger girls, spacing out the repayments.
The World Food Program warned Monday that more than half the population of Afghanistan, around 22.8 million people, will face acute food insecurity from November.
In Qala-i-Naw, capital of the western province of Badghis -- one of the regions worst affected by the drought -- there is shame and grief.
Village and displaced people's camp leaders say the numbers of young girls getting betrothed started to rise during a 2018 famine and surged this year when the rains failed once more.
Among farmers driven from their homes, AFP journalists quickly found more than a dozen families who felt forced to sell their daughters into marriage.
- Grocery debt -
Fahima's 25-year-old neighbour in the camp, Sabehreh, ran up a bill at a grocer's shop to feed her family. The business owner warned that they would be jailed if they could not repay him.
To cover the debt, the family agreed that their three-year-old daughter, Zakereh, would be betrothed to the grocer's four-year-old son, Zabiuallah.
The infants are ignorant of their future fate, the shopkeeper having elected to wait until the pair are older before taking charge of the girl's upkeep.
I'm not happy to have done that, but we had nothing to eat or drink, Sabehreh told AFP.
If this continues, we'll have to give up our three-month-old, she said, sitting by the iron cradle holding the sleeping infant, as the first chills of winter penetrated the bleak camp.
Another neighbour, Gul Bibi, confirmed that many families in the camp had resorted to child marriage.
Her own daughter Asho, aged eight or nine, is betrothed to a 23-year-old man to whose family Gul Bibi was indebted. The young man is away in nearby Iran, and she dreads the day of his return.
We know it's not right, but we don't have the choice, commented Hayatullah, a passer-by who overheard the mother's sad tale.
- 'Never seen them since' -
In another Qala-i-Naw camp, Mohammad Assan wiped back his tears as he showed AFP photos of his girls, Siana, nine, and Edi Gul, six, now living far away with their young grooms.
We've never seen them since, he said. We didn't want to do that, but we had to feed our other children.
Like many others, Assan and his family sought shelter in the temporary camp during the fierce fighting in recent years as the now victorious Taliban clawed back control of the country from the US-backed government.
My daughters are surely better off over there, with food to eat, he reasoned, trying to console himself as he showed AFP the crusts of bread his neighbours spared for him.
Assan's wife is sick and he has medical bills to pay, so he has already begun looking for a suitor for his remaining four-year-old daughter.
Some days I go crazy, his wife Dad Gul said, I leave the tent and I don't really know where I'm going.
The mothers' grief is long and open-ended: the hard decision to bargain away a child, the months or years waiting for her departure, then the pain of separation.
Rabia, a 43-year-old widow, has done everything to push back the fateful day.
Her daughter, Habibeh, has turned 12 and should have gone to join her future spouse's family a month ago, but she begged them for another year together.
I want to stay with my mother, whispered the skinny child.
Rabia would refund the 550 dollars she received for Habibeh's hand if she could afford to feed the rest of her family.
- 'Save my sons' -
Her 11-year-old boy earns 50 cents a day working for a baker, her nine-year-old picks up trash for 30. The children are black with filth, living in a ragged tent. It will be a hard winter.
As a mother, my heart is broken, but I have to save my sons, she explained.
Camp elder Abdul Rahim Akbar does what he can to save his neighbours from having to make the awful choice, distributing a small ration of bread to the poorest families.
He has seen many fathers sell their daughters, including his own brother. He has even been to see the area's new Taliban authorities to seek their assistance.
The Taliban's interim governor for Badghis province, Maulvi Abdul Sattar, told AFP: These child marriages are due to economic problems, not to any rule imposed by the Islamic emirate, or the Sharia.
Even in camps outside drought-hit Badghis, child marriage is growing.
Outside Herat, the country's third biggest city, fathers have to harden their hearts.
I sold my 10-year-old girl. I never would have done it if I had the choice, said landless farmer Allahudin, admitting that if he could find a taker he'd also sell his five-year-old.
But behind the blunt talk, there is grief and shame at their failure to provide for their families and keep them together.
I know it's not good, said Baz Mohammad, But I thought we were all going to die.