Recently, Afghanistan became the happiest country in the world in 2022. This is based on the latest World Happiness Report 2022, which is a report issued by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations.
Quoted from CNN, there are several factors that make Afghanistan the happiest country in the world. For example, the rise under the US-backed government in Kabul to high levels of poverty and lack of job opportunities.
Since the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan has been mired in an economic crisis. Almost all countries, especially the West, cut ties with Afghanistan and stopped various aid flows.
Residents are also experiencing a food crisis and more and more are experiencing hunger. According to UN data, at least 23 million Afghans suffer from extreme hunger. As many as 1 million children under 5 years are also at risk of dying from hunger.
As a result, parents in Afghanistan are forced to sell their children for sacks of wheat. One of the mothers in Afghanistan, Aziz Gul was beyond sad because his 10-year-old daughter was sold for marriage.
The husband apparently sold the child without telling him. This was done to support their five other children. The child was sold for Rp. 14.2 million.
"Otherwise (sold), they will all starve," said Aziz Gul quoting her husband, quoted by CNN.
However, Aziz Gul opposed her husband's decision. He argues with his husband about marrying off his son, Qandi. Aziz would rather die than have to accept the fact that his child had to be sold and married in order to prevent a family from starving to death.
Not remaining silent, Aziz Gul also asked his brother and village elders for help to file for Qandi's divorce process even though it meant he had to give up tens of millions in return. Meanwhile, the husband fled for fear that Gul would complain to the Taliban regime, which recently banned child and forced marriage.
"I'm so desperate. If I don't have the money to pay them and can't keep my child by my side, I say I'm going to kill myself. But I think about my other children. What will happen to them? feed them?" Gul said.
Aziz Gul's family were not the only ones who had to go through these difficult times. The same thing happened to Hamid Abdullah's family. He was forced to sell his son in order to support his wife who was sick and was pregnant with her fifth child.
"We don't have food to eat," Abdullah said.
The wife, Aunt Jan, said they had no other choice.
"When we decided on this (selling the child), it felt like someone had taken a part of my body," said Aunt Jan.
Meanwhile in the Badghis area, a family is considering selling their 8-year-old son, Salahuddin. The mother, Guldasta, asked her husband to take Salahuddin to the bazaar and sell him. They had to take this choice because they had no food for days.
"I don't want to sell my son, but I have to," Guldasta said.