Afgani farmers selling daughters to drug lords...

[DarkPhenyx]

...in order to pay off their "drug debt". This debt is what the drug lord claim is theirs because a member of the farmers family was caught while smuggling opium and lost the shipment. The debts can bein the millions of Afgani dollars and many familys have no other way to pay off teh debt. Besides, when an armed man sticks a gun in your stomach and tells you to give him your daughters...*sigh* Well, the drug lord said is is willing to wait till she's old enough...then he'll "take" her. Yes, in this case "take" is a euphamism. Good to know we won the war in Afganistan.

The story is from NPR this morning. No link, sorry.

<on edit>

Changed "coca" to "opium".

[izzie]

1. Like the Middle Ages plus we never should have done this....

Pay these war lords to fight for us.

[Beaker]

2. coca?

I wasn't aware that coca plants were big business in Afghanistan...I thought that they were mostly about opium.

[DarkPhenyx]

3. My bad....Opium.

The devil is in the details though isn't it? :)

Some days it's tough to remember all of them on the ride in.

[Cannikin]

6. Whats wrong with selling your daughter into slavery?

They did it in the bible (Exodus 21:7) So how can it be wrong?

[whatelseisnew]

4. Your headline is pretty misleading

You do clear it up in the text but ,having heard that report, I'd

have to say it was more kidnapping .

A marriage at gunpoint with the father in chains is what I recall.

I do, however, seem to recall the reporter using that phrase
"selling daughters"

[DarkPhenyx]

5. Hey, Headline News and all that.

It did catch your attention. :)

[whatelseisnew]

7. Don't blame the victims:Debt Traps Afghan Villagers in Opium Trade-Link:

A little past the halfway point on this page

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=current

[DarkPhenyx]

8. Laying no blame...

...unless it is on the administration for failing in the post war follow-up. However, as in all situations, there are alternatives for the farmers. Other ways they could be trying to make ends meet. *shrug* There is a certain amount of living with your choices that must be accounted for.

[maxsolomon]

9. why don't we just go buy all the girls in afganistan

and bring them over here? it seems like a pretty humane solution, comparatively.

[wingnut]

10. Are they hot?

j/k

[redqueen]

11. I hope no one thinks this is unique to Afghanistan

People in India do the same thing. Not to drug lords, but to 'employers'. Whether it's a carpet mill or a sex trade job, the result is the same.

And this in the midst of them receiving the 'economic boom' from us, should really tell us something.