• Lifting the veil on Afghanistan's female addicts

    Left: A drug addict in Kabul smokes for an additional kick after injecting himself with heroin, Aug. 2007. Image: Saurabh Das / AP
    Right: An Afghan woman holds up opium as she attends a counseling session at the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Reuters reports: Anita lifted the sky-blue burqa from her face, revealing glazed eyes and cracked lips from years of smoking opium, and touched her saggy belly, still round from giving birth to her seventh child a month ago.

    "I can't give breast milk to my baby," said the 32-year-old Anita, "I'm scared he'll get addicted.”

    Left: Male drug addicts sit in the detox room at the Kabul Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Sept. 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Image: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
    Right: Female drug addicts visit the Nejat drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    While it is not uncommon to see men shooting up along the banks of the dried up Kabul riverbed in broad daylight, women in the ultra-conservative culture of Muslim Afghanistan are expected to stay out of public view for the most part. They often have to seek permission from a male relative or husband to leave their home, and when they do they are encased in the head-to-toe burqa.

    No estimates are available on how many women are addicted to opium or heroin. Nejat estimates around 60,000 women in Afghanistan regularly take illegal drugs, including hashish and marijuana. Full story

    Left: An Afghan drug addict smokes heroin in the city of Ghazni west of Kabul, Afghanistan. Aug. 2007. Image: Musadeq Sadeq / AP
    Right: A woman addict sits cross-legged during a counseling session at the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Left: An Afghan policeman stands behind a pile of burning illegal narcotics in Kabul, April 2009.
    Right: A drug addict waits for her turn to see doctors at the Nejat drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, Jan. 2012. Images: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Left: Afghan farmers work in an opium poppy field in Nawa district of Helmand province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, April 2009. Image: Abdul Khaleq / AP
    Right: A drug addict holds her child as she visits the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Left: A doctor gives advice to a new detox patient in the Nejat detox program at the Kabul Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Sept. 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Image: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
    Right: An Afghan doctor explains the use of condoms to a group of women addicts at a counseling session at the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    More photos from Afghanistan on PhotoBlog

    PhotoBlog: Saffron replacing heroin?

    More photos from Afghanistan in our slideshow: Nation at a crossroads

  • Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

    Afghan workers pluck saffron flowers on a farm on November 09, 2010 in Herat, Afghanistan. Around 2500 farmers, in eight provinces, are working on saffron farms for export mostly to India and some European countries. The trade in saffron is estimated to be of an annual value in excess of 200 million USD to Afghanistan. Agricultural produce programs, including Saffron, are being offered to farmers as an alternative to the harvesting of poppies, used in the production of heroin. In western Herat province, which borders Iran, the challenge is to be able to convince farmers of the long term benefits of replacing the growing of poppies with the purple crocus plants whose highly prized stigmas produce the spice used as a seasoning and a coloring agent in cooking.

    Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

    Afghan workers pluck saffron flowers on a farm in Herat, Afghanistan.

    Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

    Staves of saffron crocus lay on a table during the saffron harvest on Nov. 08, 2010 near the village of Goriyan in Herat, Afghanistan.

    Saffron replacing heroin?

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    The intensity of the color in these images caught my eye. Although I've seen many beautiful images from Afghanistan, they aren't usually colorful. I didn't know saffron came from crocus flowers, did you?