'I couldn't even scream': survival and abuse inseparable for Kabul children | Pariwash Gouhari

Street children are forced to brave violent sexual predators in the Afghan capital as they struggle to earn money

For 14-year-old Ahmed*, life as a kid on the streets of the Afghan capital has become synonymous with abuse.

His voice calm and unwavering, Ahmed reels off stories of the assaults he has suffered over the years. “One day, a man asked me to buy him a pack of chewing gum. I went out and bought it, and took it back to his house,” Ahmed tells me in a dimly-lit apartment he shares with his family. “He then forced me inside his home and raped me.” It happened two years ago, but his stories go back to when he was five years old.

Violence is an accepted form of punishment in most households, and children get used to it

Related: Kids working on Kabul's streets get a second chance at childhood | Sune Engel Rasmussen

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JlElOb