Afghani Girls Sold to Pay for Poppy Seeds
» Political
NATO has successfully crushed the opium crop in Afghanistan. But with unexpected consequences.
But farmers are now coming forward to say that the forced loss of their poppy crop has left them unable to repay debts to drug traffickers who lent them money to buy the seeds.
In desperation, they have had to turn to a traditional Afghan practice in which a family can pay off its debt by handing over a daughter to a relative of the creditor. Usually, there is a marriage ceremony for the sake of propriety - but the woman is treated as property.
Opium farmers sell daughters to cover debts to traffickers
