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Afghan Carpet Weavers: Junkies from Birth

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Afghan Carpet Weavers: Junkies from Birth
Tue Apr 29, 7:39 AM ET

Ghafar Ali,OneWorld South Asia
PESHAWAR, April 29 (OneWorld) - Thousands of poor Afghan women surviving as carpet weavers in refugee camps in the north Pakistan city of Peshawar drug their children with a daily dose of opium, sparking an unending cycle of addiction and illiteracy which the government continues to ignore.
A prime example is that of women weavers in the 20-year-old Khurasan refugee camp, 10 miles north of Peshawar, where women dip their finger in a pot full of opium and place it in their children's mouth. Soon the infants are fast asleep, leaving the women to work undisturbed.
"We earn our daily wages by weaving carpets and this is possible only if we work all day without being bothered by our kids. So we feed them opium," shrugs an Afghan refugee woman, Gul Mena.
Marking a disturbing trend, though the drug addicted women initially feel more energized, the daily dose of the drug is severely impacting the health of both their children and them.

Mena admits that although weavers are aware of the bad effects of opium, they have no option as carpet weaving is the only thing keeping them from penury.
By the time the children reach maturity, the pot boils over. Then in an advanced stage of addiction, they join the tribe of carpet weavers, most of whom take the soporific to boost efficiency.
"If we do not take opium we cannot put in longer hours. That will deprive us of the money we need to feed our families," says another Afghan refugee, Challey.
In the Khurasan camp, which is a cluster of mud structures, there are six carpet-weaving units. The camp houses 1,375 families, most of them ethnic Turkmen from Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s northern Faryab, Jozjan, Badakhsan and Wakhan provinces.
"Turkmen are traditional carpet weavers and addiction is widespread among workers in the northern provinces," says Haji Saffar, the owner of a carpet-making unit. "Those who do not eat opium are considered worthless by their colleagues," he says.
"Both men and women are paid between U.S. $30 and $34 for weaving one meter of carpet, but a person can hardly weave a meter a month," says Saffar. Even by Afghan standards, that is chickenfeed.
The addicts are left to fend for themselves. Sadly, no international nongovernmental organization (NGO) is working for the rehabilitation of addicted women and children in the camps.
Nijat Center is the only Afghan NGO that rehabilitates opium addicts among women and children, but it is hampered by lack of resources.
Nijat Center organizer Dr Tariq Suleman blames the opium problem on sheer poverty. He says the future of thousands of young Afghans is at stake.
"We have been busy rehabilitating Afghan women and children since 1991 but the problem is so grave that we are unable to completely eradicate the menace," he confesses.
"The case of minor children is very complicated but we have no special arrangement to treat them," he maintains.
Most children are illiterate. As there is no free schooling, their parents prefer to employ them in the carpet industry rather send them to school, which would impose an additional financial burden.

Suleman says most addicts visiting his center are aged between 15 and 25 years.
Expressing his inability to cope with the rush, he points out, "We have the capacity to treat just 20 addicts a month but we have 3,000 people on the waiting list."
The Afghanistan and Iraq wars also hit carpet exports to the Middle East and Western countries, exacerbating the misery of the weavers. While some units shut shop, others had to cut production.
This has rendered many workers, especially women, jobless. Scores of carpet weavers unfamiliar with other jobs are now in dire straits.
Suleman recommends that, "International agencies should pay attention to this grave threat to Afghan youth and start a comprehensive campaign for the rehabilitation of addicted women and children." For Further Reading:

Afghan Carpet Weavers: Junkies from Birth

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