CNN recently sent a camera crew out to document an Afghan family selling their daughter to an old pedophile for $2000. The crew not only interviewed the family and knew that they were selling her to buy food, but filmed the whole thing. Crew members who work for a global network that is worth billions of dollar did not offer to purchase the family’s food, so they didn’t have to sell their daughter. They watched as a “wife” sold to sex slavery and a child was sold.
The camera rolls as the child applies make-up in preparation for her husband. The father tells his daughter that he is forced to sell his daughter because the Taliban took over humanitarian aid. As she struggles, the cameras record an elderly man coming to her aid. Nobody does anything. As the voiceover states, “The child’s fate is sealed,” the child vanishes into the Afghanistan desert.
Even worse is the full video. CNN reports that other families are selling their daughters as young a 4 year old. One 10-year-old girl says she would rather commit suicide than be forced to wed an older man.
Two problems are apparent here. Is it possible for a father to sell his daughter to a pedophile? If the situation is so dire, he should first sell himself. He should leave his family behind and flee to another country to seek refugee status. The Afghan men aren’t too upset about this for some reason. One with dry eyes and no visible stress says, “I’m ashamed.” This “solution” is a result of misogyny and culture. How can a man give his daughter in exchange for a bag full of rice? My daughter would be better off if I was starving.
CNN is watching a child being dragged away from a pedophile and not doing anything about it. They can’t raise a few thousand dollars to stop this from happening. You saved one child. I was endorsed by the majority of commenters.
It’s not always the right thing to do. We know that our involvement in Afghanistan was nothing more than a 20-year war and the deaths of many Americans. Once our troops left, the misogynistic horrors roared back at full speed. We must recognize that there is no way to stop the thousands-of-years-old ways of life in Afghanistan. This is something that we all have to accept. Selling children is a terrible and unjust tradition. It is the fathers who have to stop it. CNN, could you not have created a fund to help the children you saved? It wouldn’t have been so difficult.
