As soon as the American and allied forces pulled out of Afghanistan last August, an economic crisis has taken hold in the country. To survive, some families have been pushed to make impossible decisions. Some have resorted to selling off their daughters in order to feed the rest of their families.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), as reported by CNN, an estimate of over 20 million people in Afghanistan will “face emergency levels of acute hunger” by March. Also, today, three million children under 5 years old are acutely malnourished.

In an interview with CNN, Dominik Stillhart, the director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, “The international community is turning its back as the country teeters on the precipice of man-made catastrophe.”

Mahbouba Seraj, leading Afghan women’s rights activist, added, “Afghan young girls (are) becoming the price of food. Because otherwise, their family will starve. Usually, there is a lot of misery, there is a lot of mistreatment, there is a lot of abuse is involved in these things… Some of them can’t take it. They mostly die pretty young.”

Technically, it is illegal for girls to marry if they’re younger than 15. But now that families are faced with the reality of starvation, and seeing that this is their only way to survive, for now, these illegal actions don’t stop the exchanges from happening.

One of them is father Abdul Malik. Needing food and money, he resorted to selling off his young daughters as child brides. The rest of his family needs to eat and this is the only way. He’d already sold a 12-year-old daughter into marriage. Then in October, he made another heartbreaking decision to sell off his 9-year-old daughter, Parwana.

The little girl had hoped to continue her education and become a teacher someday. But after being sold off as a child bride, these dreams are crushed. This was not an easy decision for the father. He said, “We are eight family members. I have to sell to keep other family members alive.”

He said that he’d tried other options, and admitted to feeling guilty and ashamed. He had traveled in search of work, had borrowed large sums of money, but it’s not enough. His family had even begged but still, they suffered.

Mother, 27-year-old Reza Gul who was not a stranger to child marriages as she also married at 13, said, “Of course, I was angry, I fought him, and I cried. He said that he didn’t have any option.”

Qorban, 55, offered to buy the child as his second wife. He gave Abdul Malik roughly $2,200 worth of land, sheep, and cash, and promised to treat Parwana “like family.”

At the time, Parwana said, “My father has sold me because we don’t have bread, rice, and flour. He has sold me to an old man.”

And the trade was made. Then, things did not go well. Parwana was treaded badly. She said, “They were cursing me. They were waking me up early and making me work.”

Parwana’s story circulated news outlets and stirred up anger. Readers rallied online to help save the little girl. And within two weeks, Parwana was back home while Qorban had gone into hiding after receiving excoriation.

Thanks to the help of the organization Too Young To Wed, mother Reza Gul, Parwana, and her five other siblings were rescued from the camp in Badghis province. Their father stayed behind, but he seemed relieved that his family would finally be well cared for.