Jezebel
Taking extreme measures in the face of extreme poverty is not just a problem for India's daughters, but for Afghanistan's young girls as well. According to the BBC, an increasing number of very young Afghan women are being married to older suitors in exchange for money or livestock because their families can barely afford to eat. This is a particular problem in the mountainous Badakhshan region, where 7,000 farm animals have died in the past five months due to a snowy winter and the cost of food has skyrocketed. The BBC interviewed a Badakshan midwife, Hanufa Mah, who says she recently helped a ten-year-old through labor. "The girl was so small. I held her in my lap until the child was born." [BBC News]
10:45 AM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Jessica
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