Sima says: “After the Taliban entered the country, I had just finished the sixth grade and was supposed to start the seventh. But two months later, my father pressured me immensely to marry my cousin.
,,,workers at one public hospital in northern Afghanistan revealed that 42 underage girls gave birth in the first five months of this year. Six were in their second pregnancy. Five had ectopic pregnancies – a leading cause of maternal deaths – and 18 had caesarean sections. Two died, though their babies survived.
Mothers who are still children themselves often haven’t completed their physical or psychological growth and face higher risk of severe bleeding, anaemia, miscarriage, obstructed labour and premature birth, along with a greater likelihood of a low-weight or unhealthy infant.
Shabnam says families often resist caesarean section, believing they limit future pregnancies. Two young mothers in her care recently died in childbirth because their husbands refused to permit one.
Afghan girls who have been barred from education above the sixth grade (about 12 years) since the Taliban returned to power. Many are now forced into marriage and premature motherhood. The Afghanistan Human Rights Center reports that one teacher estimated 70% of girls pushed out of school had been driven into forced marriages, while a smaller survey of 15 such girls found 66% of them were under 18.
