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CNN film crew does NOTHING as little girl is sold to old man

A father treats his daughter like livestock

Shefali O'Hara
4 min readNov 8, 2021
Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

What is the appropriate way for parents to treat their precious daughters?

How should a father care for his child?

When I was a child, my father always had my back. He was very protective of his family, including his only daughter. He and my mom gave up things they wanted to make sure my brother and I had everything we needed.

I grew up thinking this was natural for fathers — that they would protect and provide for their children, both sons and daughters.

Unfortunately for many little girls in Afghanistan, this is not their reality.

What should a 9 year old girl be doing?

When I was in the 4th grade, I loved to read, to play outdoors with friends and all the pretty flowers. I blew the fluff off dandelions and made wishes. Those wishes seem silly now, but they meant something to me back then.

What should a little girl’s life be like?

Girl Scouts, art and music, riding bikes, playing sports or video games, watching cartoons…. Of course it’s not all fun and games, maybe she needs to do her homework, watch younger siblings or help cook dinner. But there is innocence and wonder even when doing chores.

I just watched a video filmed by CNN of a 9 year old girl in Afghanistan who was sold to a 55 year old man.

Her father sold her to buy rice and beans. In Biblical terms, he sold his inheritance for a bowl of pottage. Because his children should be more precious to him than any lot of land. And food is temporal.

My father would have starved rather than selling me. If I had a child, I’d die myself rather than letting an old man use her as a sex slave.

Yet in the video linked here, you can see that the father calmly watches as his little girl fights against her subjugation. She doesn’t want to be taken against her will by an old man, to be raped and abused. She doesn’t want to be forced to be a wife. Even thinking of that makes me shudder. What kind of world do we live in where a child is considered marriageable?

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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