Frontline: Opium Brides

[Renew Deal]

I just watched a Frontline special on what is being done to women, children, and families in Afghanistan in relation to the opium trade. Basically drug smugglers give farmers money to grow opium. The opium is often destroyed by the Afghan government. If the opium isn't delivered or the money isn't repaid to the smugglers, the smugglers take children with a preference for girls. The people taken are forced to work in the opium trade as slaves and girls are often sold off as brides. It's a sick, cruel, subhuman situation. I can't imagine the pain of the families. You can watch the special on TV or here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/opium-brides

More info is here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/afghanistan-pakistan/opium-brides/afghanistans-opium-brides-who-is-working-on-the-issue

“At its core, the problem of ‘opium brides’ and other ‘loan brides’ is one of human trafficking, and of the utter devaluing of women’s and girls’ lives,” says Una Moore, a Kabul-based development consultant who frequently works in Nangarhar Province, where opium eradication policies have been enforced. “Strip away the euphemisms and exoticism [of the terms] and you’re dealing with slavery.”

[Suich]

1. That was hard to watch.

I was glad that man, whose daughter and son were both kidnapped, got them back (eventually). But then the son died 2 days later...so sad.