Afghanistan Selling Daughters USAGM
Metadata
- Afghanistan Selling Daughters USAGM
- March 7, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Afghanistan Selling Daughters HEADLINE: In Afghanistan, Selling One Child to Save Another TEASER: Desperate parents say they sell one daughter to save their other children from starvation. PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 03/07/2022 at 10:30 am BYLINE: Ayesha Tanzeem CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: HERAT, AFGHANISTAN VIDEOGRAPHER: Habibullah Azizi PRODUCER: Malik Waqar Ahmed SCRIPT EDITORS: MPage, Steve Hirsch, pcd VIDEO SOURCE: VOA PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_ TRT: 3:19 VID APPROVED BY: MAS TYPE: TVPKG UPDATE: )) ((INTRO: )) [[One in three Afghans is going hungry these days. Children are facing acute malnutrition. VOA's Ayesha Tanzeem reports that poor Afghans are resorting to desperate measures, like selling one child to save the others.]] ((NARRATOR)) Busy playing with her friends, little Sideeqa is unaware that her future has been sealed. Her parents have sold her for around $2,000 to an Afghan working abroad. She is not alone. This little girl, this little girl, and this little girl are all sold. This little girl is available for sale. ((Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News (standup))) ((NARRATOR (nonstandup) )) “Most of the girls we met in this camp, and they all look like they are under 10 years old, are either already sold to a buyer, or their parents are looking for a buyer. When we ask why these parents sell their daughters, one man, Abdul Aziz, loses his temper. ((Abdul Aziz, (man in Pashto)) “We give our kids sleeping pills because they cry and ask for food. We had a life once. We were rich. Then the drought came. War killed our young men. We escaped Faryab province to come to Herat. Since this new government came into power, God knows one sack of wheat has gone up to $25. How do we buy it? We’ve been living like this for three years.” ((NARRATOR)) The parents say they sell one child to save all the others from starvation. War and a prolonged drought had already devastated Afghanistan. The country’s economy depended heavily on foreign funding. When the Taliban took over the country militarily six months ago, international financial support to the country ended. The subsequent collapse of the Afghan economy exacerbated financial woes. Ninety percent of Afghans now make less than $2 a day. Nearly half the country’s population is facing acute hunger. One million children face acute malnutrition. Her desperate situation makes Shireena ((for eds: one name only)) angry. She throws a sack of trash on the floor and starts yelling. ((Shireena (female in Pashto)) “We have no money for medicines, no food for our children. In this terrible cold we are living on these rocks. There is no fire to warm us. My son has just brought this trash. We might earn five or 10 cents from it. That is what we are worth.” ((NARRATOR)) Sideeqa’s father says his daughter is supposed to marry the son of the buyer once she becomes a teenager. But he acknowledges that once sold, the buyer controls her life. He can sell her to someone else. ((Sideeqa’s Father- male in Pashto)) “She is young. She doesn’t know anything. Now she belongs to them. They can do with her as they please. We did it because we had no choice. We don’t know what’s in her future.” ((NARRATOR)) Even as he talks to us, the people surrounding us start interrupting. We have nothing, what are we supposed to do, they ask. Then one woman, sounding angry and desperate, tells us: “We sell our children like animals.” ((Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News, Herat, Afghanistan))
- Transcript/Script USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Afghanistan Selling Daughters HEADLINE: In Afghanistan, Selling One Child to Save Another TEASER: Desperate parents say they sell one daughter to save their other children from starvation. PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 03/07/2022 at 10:30 am BYLINE: Ayesha Tanzeem CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: HERAT, AFGHANISTAN VIDEOGRAPHER: Habibullah Azizi PRODUCER: Malik Waqar Ahmed SCRIPT EDITORS: MPage, Steve Hirsch, pcd VIDEO SOURCE: VOA PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_ TRT: 3:19 VID APPROVED BY: MAS TYPE: TVPKG UPDATE: )) ((INTRO: )) [[One in three Afghans is going hungry these days. Children are facing acute malnutrition. VOA's Ayesha Tanzeem reports that poor Afghans are resorting to desperate measures, like selling one child to save the others.]] ((NARRATOR)) Busy playing with her friends, little Sideeqa is unaware that her future has been sealed. Her parents have sold her for around $2,000 to an Afghan working abroad. She is not alone. This little girl, this little girl, and this little girl are all sold. This little girl is available for sale. ((Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News (standup))) ((NARRATOR (nonstandup) )) “Most of the girls we met in this camp, and they all look like they are under 10 years old, are either already sold to a buyer, or their parents are looking for a buyer. When we ask why these parents sell their daughters, one man, Abdul Aziz, loses his temper. ((Abdul Aziz, (man in Pashto)) “We give our kids sleeping pills because they cry and ask for food. We had a life once. We were rich. Then the drought came. War killed our young men. We escaped Faryab province to come to Herat. Since this new government came into power, God knows one sack of wheat has gone up to $25. How do we buy it? We’ve been living like this for three years.” ((NARRATOR)) The parents say they sell one child to save all the others from starvation. War and a prolonged drought had already devastated Afghanistan. The country’s economy depended heavily on foreign funding. When the Taliban took over the country militarily six months ago, international financial support to the country ended. The subsequent collapse of the Afghan economy exacerbated financial woes. Ninety percent of Afghans now make less than $2 a day. Nearly half the country’s population is facing acute hunger. One million children face acute malnutrition. Her desperate situation makes Shireena ((for eds: one name only)) angry. She throws a sack of trash on the floor and starts yelling. ((Shireena (female in Pashto)) “We have no money for medicines, no food for our children. In this terrible cold we are living on these rocks. There is no fire to warm us. My son has just brought this trash. We might earn five or 10 cents from it. That is what we are worth.” ((NARRATOR)) Sideeqa’s father says his daughter is supposed to marry the son of the buyer once she becomes a teenager. But he acknowledges that once sold, the buyer controls her life. He can sell her to someone else. ((Sideeqa’s Father- male in Pashto)) “She is young. She doesn’t know anything. Now she belongs to them. They can do with her as they please. We did it because we had no choice. We don’t know what’s in her future.” ((NARRATOR)) Even as he talks to us, the people surrounding us start interrupting. We have nothing, what are we supposed to do, they ask. Then one woman, sounding angry and desperate, tells us: “We sell our children like animals.” ((Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News, Herat, Afghanistan))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date March 7, 2022 10:33 EST
- Byline Ayesha Tanzeem
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English