The problem is endemic to the culture. The farmer’s own “tribal council” has ruled here that a 9 year old child is worth $2,000.00. When a daughter becomes worth enough that a father is willing to kill and die for her, then will this whole thing meet its overdue end.
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When the “drug trafficker” shows up, Shah will duly hand over his daughter, in solidarity with the “tribal council”.
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His daughter understand this. She is the brave one here.
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unclesmrgol on March 31, 2008 at 6:46 PM

What about the fault of the fathers to agree to giving the daughters away? Then, add the fact they are risking their family by doing something declared illegal.
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I no tolerance for drug growers who make choices then whine when they lose their family because of it. I feel forever bad about the child, but the focus needs to be the adult who agrees to do corrupt things in the first place.

There is already a commercial poppy crop grown for medical use. One of the locations is Tasmania, Australia.

If you decide to buy from the farmers in Afghanistan, the Tasmanian growers will lose out.

Nothing to do with a war-torn country. They always grew opium poppies. The lack of infrastructure is more a consequence of the always divided government, the large distances involved, and the terrain.

For those who suggest a replacement, just what robust crop, with a like return, will grow where the poppies are grown

You are putting the cart before the horse. As long as there is Islam, such practices will continue.

This isn’t some painful necessity for fathers that will be erased by putting refrigerated trucks on four lane IED expresses. They will be giving away females for flat tires and fender benders. It’s the trade in young women that’s important, not the excuses given for it. And besides sharia allows for it and Sharia is Afghanistans constitutional trump card.

Yet another evil of our war on drugs…just let the drugs grow..better yet at 4,000 a head why not buy the daughters ourselves shipped them over here. educate them in AMerica and then ship them back to Afganisitain…call it a blood price…change the culture from the inside instead of the outside.

unseen on March 31, 2008 at 9:26 PM

Our motto will be today ten thousand girls, tomorrow ten thousand Ayaan Hirsi Alis.

When you pay for something you get more of it. What’s not to understand?

njcommuter on March 31, 2008 at 10:31 PM

That is right. Buying opium on the open market will just increase the price because you will still have the demand from the drug consuming public. The correct thing to do is to decriminalize the growing poppies and the consumption of the products. Trafficking would be illegal for all but companies willing to be honest about how much they are transporting and pay taxes in accordance. Soon prices will drop and the Afghan farmers will have an incentive to look to other crops. Then fight the drug war by going after the demand side, convince drug consumers that they are killing themselves and offer treatment. Keep taxes high to discourage drug use but not so high as to encourage smuggling.

It is a shame that our stupid drug war is getting in the way of the war on terror.

Why doesn’t the government (ours/ Afghanistan’s) buy the opium from the farmers in order to direct it to legitimate pharmaceutical industries? If the price is better than that offered by the traffickers, then the farmers (and their daughters) are in a win-win position.

If said governments offered an even better price for other types of sustainable crops, the cycle of impoverishment and blackmail would break.

I donot understand the Maerican government’s response to drugs.

The USA could buy the opium from the framers for less then it costs to try to eradicate it.

When you pay for something you get more of it. What’s not to understand?

The selling of daughters is gonna happen with or without it because of islam anyway. Karzai is to be commended for urging his people to give up this cruel and barbaric practice.

Keep fooling yourself.

agreed.

I donot understand the Maerican government’s response to drugs.

The USA could buy the opium from the framers for less then it costs to try to eradicate it.

It makes no sense.

– Seller promised me 20 kilos of opium for $2k. I waited two months and still no delivery. Seller failed to delever the opium and tried to pawn off his daughter in exchange.

– Buyer claims that opium was never delivered, and now insist that send him my 4 year old daughter in compensation. He claims that he will kill my entire family for non-compliance. I would not recomend doing business with this buyer.

Right on. Make them an offer that they can’t refuse.

1) Offer to teach local farmers how to grow non-opium renewable slow perishing harvests. When farmers point to opium buyers and drug runners as better sources of cash, then…

2) Find the drug runners and opium buyers.

3) Shoot them.

4) Offer to teach local farmers how to grow non-opium renewable slow perishing harvests.

Sometimes you just have to use the correct persuasion.

When the “drug trafficker” shows up, Shah will duly hand over his daughter, in solidarity with the “tribal council”.

His daughter understand this. She is the brave one here.

This is nothing less than slavery. Families have bartered for dowries in many cultures, including those in the West, but this goes beyond that. If we want the people of Afghanistan to find stability and prosperity without opium, we have to begin by halting the slave trade and addressing the infrastructure issues of that nation.

The State Department, the U.N., Amnesty International, and the likes are all on top of it…and so is Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama. It has been consuming them. And, please do not forget the paragons in the media.

Khalida’s father says she’s 9—or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can’t keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the family can’t keep her much longer.

This will be our darkest year since 2000,” says Baz Mohammad, 65, a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar. “Even more daughters will be sold this year.” The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing

Late last year Khan reluctantly gave his 16-year-old daughter, Gul Ghoti, in marriage to the lender’s 15-year-old son. Besides forgiving Khan’s debt, the creditor gave him a $1,500 cash dowry. Khan calls him an honorable man. “Until the end of my life I will feel shame because of what I did to my daughter,” Khan says. “I still can’t look her in the eye.” But at least she was old enough to marry, he adds. He claims one local farmer recently had to promise the hand of his 2-month-old daughter to free his family from an opium debt.

Our pharmacopoeia still contains opium-derived drugs. That opium doesn’t have to become heroin.

Sekhmet on March 31, 2008 at 6:23 PM

Very good point, but you still need the infrastructure and infrastructure will only begin to take root and move forward once the Afghan’s security issues (Taliban/AQ) have been eliminated.

Unfortunately it’s difficult to help a culture that is still living in the 11th century to see the benefits of moving into the 19th century let alone the 21st century.