This report from The Afghan Times investigates the worsening child labour crisis in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power. Through firsthand accounts and field reporting by Afghan women journalists, it exposes the systemic forces driving children into labour—and calls for urgent action to protect their rights and futures.
On this World Day Against Child Labour, June 12, 2025, we dedicate these pages to the silent suffering of Afghan children—those who are no longer seen in classrooms, but in markets, workshops, mines, or behind closed doors performing endless domestic chores. These are not just statistics. These are children who once dreamed of being doctors, poets, teachers, and engineers. Now, they survive each day under the weight of labour, poverty, and fear.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the lives of Afghan children have grown immeasurably harder.
Economic collapse, international isolation, the closure of schools—especially for girls—and the erosion of child protection systems have pushed tens of thousands of children into the labour force. Some work to feed their families. Others are trafficked, married off, or trapped in cycles of exploitation with no recourse to justice.
The stories in this magazine are both heartbreaking and necessary. We have gathered the testimonies of Afghan children whose lives have been shaped by conflict, oppression, and the failure of the world to act.
Their names, where necessary, have been changed for their safety.
Their words, however, remain unaltered. Through them, we hear the cost of global silence.
This magazine does not aim to sensationalize suffering. It is a call to listen. To remember that behind every child labourer is a stolen right—an education not received, a childhood not lived, a future not imagined.
We urge our readers—Afghan and international—to carry these stories beyond these pages. Let this not be a moment of mourning, but a movement of responsibility. Afghanistan’s children are not just victims of circumstance. They are survivors. And they deserve far more than the world has given them.
