In a remote compound in southern Afghanistan, Bibi Hazrato, a distressed 60 year old, watches as a group of men destroy her poppy crop, adhering to a Taliban government order to eradicate the narcotic plant from the country.
Hazrato confronts the men, but one of them simply says…
“God says crush this.”
The profitable trade of poppy tar, which is the psychoactive substance in heroin, has been a consistent aspect of Afghanistan’s economy throughout years of conflict and turmoil. However, in April of last year, Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada proclaimed that poppy cultivation was “strictly prohibited.”
As the first harvest season under the ban begins, fields of wheat are cropping up where poppy flowers used to thrive. In Hazrato’s humble home in Sher Surkh village, Kandahar province, the dilemma of balancing an illegal yet economically vital source of…
