New Delhi, Nov 13 (TIWN) UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore has said that there is deep concern over reports that child marriages in Afghanistan are on the rise.

"We have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old for future marriage in return for dowry," Fore said.  Even before the latest political instability in Afghanistan, 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. UNICEF estimates that 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15-49 years were married before the age of 18.