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Afghanistan

  • Afghanistan missing an estimated 900,000 women due to cultural preferences.
  • Afghanistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.
  • Some Afghan women and children are forced into prostitution in Iran and Slovenia.
  • Women and girls from Iran, Tajikistan, and possibly Uganda and China are reportedly forced into prostitution in Afghanistan.
  • Brothels and prostitution rings are sometimes run by foreigners, sometimes with links to larger criminal networks.
  • Tajik women also are believed to be trafficked through Afghanistan to other countries for prostitution.
  • Trafficked Iranian women transit Afghanistan en route to Pakistan.
  • An estimated 70 to 80% of marriages are forced and 87% of women face at least one form of physical, sexual, or psychological violence or forced marriage in their lifetimes.

 Sources: US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011; Stephan Klasen and Claudia Wink, University of Munich: A Turning Point in Gender Bias in Mortality? (2001); Human Rights Watch World Report 2012