[ti:Desperate Parents in Afghanistan Faced with Selling Their Children] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.16]In a large, simple settlement in western Afghanistan, [00:06.36]Aziz Gul is fighting to save her daughter. [00:11.68]Her husband sold the 10-year-old girl [00:15.80]into marriage without telling his wife. [00:20.04]He took a down-payment so he could feed his family of five children. [00:25.40]Without that money, he told his wife, they would all starve. [00:32.08]He had to sacrifice one child to save the rest. [00:38.28]Many of Afghanistan's poorest people are making such decisions [00:43.56]as their nation faces severe poverty. [00:48.60]The aid-dependent country's economy was already struggling [00:53.48]when the Taliban seized power last August. [00:57.76]The international community then froze Afghanistan's valuables [01:03.08]overseas and halted all funding, [01:05.88]unwilling to work with a Taliban government. [01:10.80]The effects of such actions have been devastating. [01:14.64]Aid groups now say more than [01:17.48]half the population faces severe food shortages. [01:23.08]"Day by day, the situation is deteriorating in this country, [01:27.76]and especially children are suffering," said Asuntha Charles. [01:33.28]She is national director of the World Vision [01:36.88]aid organization in Afghanistan. [01:39.88]The organization runs a health center [01:42.84]for displaced people just outside the western city of Herat. [01:48.64]Charles said, "Today I have been heartbroken to see [01:52.72]that the families are willing to sell their children [01:55.72]to feed other family members." [01:58.24]Arranging marriages for very young girls [02:02.00]is somewhat common throughout the area. [02:05.64]The groom's family pays money to make the marriage happen. [02:10.44]The child usually stays with her own parents [02:14.20]until she is at least 15 years of age. [02:17.48]Yet with many families unable to pay for even simple food, [02:22.88]some say they would permit husbands [02:25.68]to live with their very young daughters. [02:28.52]Some are even trying to sell their sons. [02:33.12]But Gul is resisting. [02:35.52]She herself was married off at 15 years old. [02:39.96]She said she would kill herself [02:42.80]if her daughter, Qandi Gul, is forcibly taken away. [02:47.96]Gul remembers well when she found out her husband had sold Qandi. [02:54.36]For around two months, the family had been able to eat enough food. [02:59.56]She decided to ask her husband how they were paying for the food. [03:05.48]That is when he told her what he had done. [03:10.08]"My heart stopped beating. I wish I could have died at that time, [03:14.52]but maybe God didn't want me to die," Gul said. [03:19.04]Qandi sat close to her mother. [03:22.36]"Each time I remember that night ... I die and come back to life. [03:27.36]It was so difficult." [03:30.48]She asked her husband why he did it. [03:34.20]"He said he wanted to sell one and save the others. [03:38.16]‘You all would have died this way,' he said. [03:41.40]I told him, ‘Dying was much better than what you have done.'" [03:46.56]Gul told her brothers and village elders [03:49.76]that her husband had sold their child without telling her. [03:54.40]They supported her. [03:56.04]With their help, she received a "divorce" for her child, [04:00.56]but only on condition that she repay the $1,000 [04:05.72]that her husband received from the groom's family. [04:10.36]It is money she does not have. [04:13.24]Her husband fled, possibly fearing Gul [04:17.16]might denounce him to officials. [04:19.88]The Taliban government recently announced a ban [04:23.68]on forcing women into marriage. [04:27.40]The family her husband sold the girl to [04:30.72]has already tried several times to claim Qandi, Gul said. [04:35.44]"If I can't provide money to pay these people [04:39.44]and can't keep my daughter by my side, [04:42.28]I have said that I will kill myself," Gul said. [04:46.60]"But then I think about the other children. [04:49.60]What will happen to them? Who will feed them?" [04:54.16]Gul's oldest child is 12. [04:56.60]Her youngest is just two months old. [05:00.60]Gul leaves the children with her mother [05:03.88]while she goes to work in people's homes. [05:07.48]Her 12-year-old son works picking saffron after school. [05:12.20]He makes just enough to keep the family fed. [05:16.16]But the saffron season is short. [05:19.16]"We don't have anything," Gul said. [05:23.68]I'm Ashley Thompson. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM