An 11-year-old girl in Ghor Province, Afghanistan sits beside her fiancé, estimated to be in his late 40s, at their engagement ceremony shortly before the couple’s marriage in 2005.

I was around 11-12 when this picture appeared in a children’s/youth magazine. Crazy to think that it’s been almost 20 years since then and how I wasn’t able to grasp the severity of the picture back then.

That poor wee girl . A disgusting old fart like that . She looks mortified

The look on that poor child’s face…

Cultural relativeism has its limits.. this is objectively an awful part of that culture

Late 40’s???

He looks like 60’s…

Disgusting

that poor little girl :/

As a muslim, i really wanted this hideous so-called ‘culture’ to end. Child marriage isn’t okay. Arranged marriage isn’t okay. Many parents do this only for the sake of their own benefits. They’re benefitting from this. Utter disgusting. END CHILD MARRIAGE NOW! I wouldn’t imagine if i am to be arranged with a man with the age of my own parents. Disgusting.

Much more is happening in Afghanistan. Bacha Bazi – severe child abuse, disguised as an Afghan custom. People are sometimes only seen and used as “toys”. If the toy no longer works, it goes in the trash.

A great example of how “cultural differences” while important, have their limits.

Also a “good” reminder that child marriage is legal in 37 U.S. states as of June 2024.

A good example of why all traditions should be open to ridicule.

He looks like you’d expect, he couldn’t even be bothered to wear a clean … whatever they are. Hopefully she managed to get the FK out of there as soon as she could

She would be about 30 years old now. Would be interesting to see how the couple is doing now, how many kids they have, what his other wives think, if he has married additional women.

“Respect all cultures”

Fuck no.