AFGHANISTAN (TND) - Following the Taliban's takeover of the country, destitute families in Afghanistan are turning to "marrying off" their daughters for dowries, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other reports.

“I am deeply concerned by reports that child marriage in Afghanistan is on the rise," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a statement. “We have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old up for future marriage in return for a dowry."

UNICEF is a United Nation's agency dedicated to providing developmental and humanitarian aid to children across the globe. UNICEF's Executive Director Fore says in her statement that a multitude of factors are driving Afghan families deeper into poverty and even into starvation.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing food crisis and the onset of winter have further exacerbated the situation for families. In 2020, almost half of Afghanistan’s population was so poor that they lacked necessities such as basic nutrition or clean water," said Fore. “The extremely dire economic situation in Afghanistan is pushing more families deeper into poverty and forcing them to make desperate choices, such as putting children to work and marrying girls off at a young age."

A report from the Thomson Reuters Foundation tells the story of an Afghan brick kiln worker who is now "jobless and engulfed in debt." This led to worker to what the report calls a "stark choice": He could marry off his daughters and collect dowries, or he could risk having his family starve to death.

The worker reportedly received $3,000 in dowries for marrying off both his 13-year-old and 15-year-old daughters to men who were twice their age. The worker may also have to marry off his 7-year-old daughter if the aforementioned $3,000 runs out, he reportedly said.

"I had no other way to feed my family and pay off my debt. What else could I have done?" he said to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I desperately hope I won't have to marry off my youngest daughter."

UNICEF's Executive Director Fore does say in her statement that child marriages in Afghanistan are not incredibly uncommon, even before the recent Taliban takeover.

“Even before the latest political instability, UNICEF’s partners registered 183 child marriages and 10 cases of selling of children over 2018 and 2019 in Herat and Baghdis provinces alone. The children were between 6 months and 17 years of age," said Fore in her statement. “UNICEF estimates that 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15–49 years were married before the age of 18."