New crisis – Afghan people caught between drug addiction and Taliban vengeance

Afghan women and children live in constant fear of imprisonment in the prisons of the Taliban movement, which now controls Afghanistan, amid continuing violations and poor living conditions that plague most of the country’s population.

Two Taliban soldiers stormed a house near Kandahar last month, looking for Farzana, a 40-year-old woman and mother of eight children suspected of drug use. Farzana’s husband, Nasrallah, was arrested a few weeks ago, but he escaped from the movement and is still hiding from them.

Popular panic

The Global and Mail, an Indian newspaper, reported that thousands of women and children in Afghanistan fear the oppression of the Taliban movement, which controls the government. They are arrested on flimsy pretexts and charges, such as opium addiction.

Farzana said: Trembling, Othmania told the Taliban that her mother was not home and promised to report her mother when she returned to her home, a desperate cat-and-mouse toy. Farzana and her children played to avoid the Taliban’s crackdown on drug trafficking, which was announced in April, the newspaper reported.

Some Afghan addicts fear imprisonment because it will provide neither safety nor treatment, and are ostracized by other family members and neighbors, Global and Mail said.

Farzana’s life is part of an escalating tragedy in which most of the Afghan people, especially women, are suffering as Afghanistan struggles with poverty and famine.

Drug addiction hits Afghanistan

According to the UN, more than 10% of Afghanistan’s population of 40 million are addicts, while drug treatment programs are rare. However, drug addiction is not a new problem in Afghanistan, as the country has been the world’s largest opium farmer and major opium producer for at least 30 years, but addiction rates have recently risen dramatically.

United Nations reports indicate that the number of Afghan women addicts has increased by more than 600 per cent over the past decade, as protracted military conflict has left them vulnerable to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, common risk factors for the development of drug use disorders.

According to the Indian newspaper, since the Taliban’s anti-drug campaign came into effect, thousands of drug-using men have been arrested and imprisoned.