18 April 2017 – Afghan Ministries of Information and Culture (MoIC) and Women’s Affairs (MoWA) with the support from the Embassy of Canada and UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) launched the “National Action Plan to Eliminate Early and Child Marriage” at the Government Media and Information Center today.

This is 2016 and yet one in three women worldwide still experiences or has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence, usually perpetrated by someone she knows. Moreover, millions of women and girls have been subjected to other forms of violence and harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, which affect an estimated 200 million women and girls, or child marriage, with one in three girls in developing countries being married off before the age of 18.

Kabul, 05 September, 2016. Deputy Ministry of Youth Affairs and Ministry of Women Affairs, with the Technical Support of UNFPA organized a One-Day consensus-building workshop for the endorsement of the National Action Plan for Elimination of Early and Child Marriage in Afghanistan. The workshop took place at the GIMC.

Kabul 04 June 2016 – UNFPA, Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Deputy Ministry of Youth Affairs of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan organized a workshop to bring together the public and the private sectors and the international community to gather feedback on the draft of a National Action Plan to Eliminate Early and Child Marriage in Afghanistan.

2 million of them are 14 or youngerKabul, 03 November 2013 - Motherhood in childhood is a huge global problem, especially in developing countries, where every year 7.3 million girls under 18 give birth, according to The State of World Population 2013, released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund alongside Central Statisti

Overview

Child marriages are illegal but widespread in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s minimum age of marriage for girls is 16 or 15 well below the internationally recommended standard of 18. They mainly happen in rural areas, especially along the borders with Pakistan.

Child marriages are usually aimed at strengthening ties with rival families and tribes, as part of deals or to settle debts and disputes. Poor families often end up selling daughters for large dowries from wealthy people and the husbands are usually much older.