AFGHAN WOMEN USING DRUGS TO COPE

An increasing number of Afghan women are turning to drugs to help them
cope with bereavement and displacement caused by 23 years of savage
war, a recent survey has shown.

Afghanistan long has been known as one of the world's major producers
of opium. A recent U. N. study reports that opium production had
reached 3,400Etons last year. But until relatively recently, it was
not thought to have a serious drug problem of its own among its deeply
religious and conservative population.

However, a recent survey conducted by the Nejat Center in Kabul, the
only organization treating drug addiction in the country, showed there
were more than 300 women addicts in the capital of Kabul alone. Most
used opium, although some were found to be addicted to hashish.

"We have already treated 100 addicted women, and are currently
handling 20 other cases," said Shah Begum, who works at the center.
"We are also treating some children born to addicted mothers."

Many of the women say they became addicted while living in the
overcrowded refugee camps across the border in Pakistan, where
hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled as war against the occupying
Soviet army gave way to bitter fighting among Islamic groups and
finally to the five-year rule of the hard-line Taliban.

"These women have not become addicted for pleasure," said Setaara, a
worker at the center. "The main cause of their addiction is 23 years
of war. Most of them start using opium to help them cope with their
problems, but over time it becomes a habit."

For Sarwa, 50, the decision to seek treatment for her opium addiction
was not an easy one. "It will be very difficult for me to give it up,"
she says. "I lost two sons and a young daughter during the various
wars. My home was destroyed by a rocket, forcing me to flee abroad
with what remained of my family. As a refugee I faced a lot of new
problems, and in order to forget them I started smoking opium."

Rona, 45, who recently returned from a refugee camp in Pakistan, also
blamed the wars for her addiction. "First, my 16-year-old nephew was
killed. Then, a year later, his mother and young sisters also died,
and my husband was seriously injured. To cope with all this I started
smoking opium at night. Now I eat it during the day as well," she says.

One woman at the center who declined to give her name says she had
been a regular hashish user but tried opium on the advice of friends.

"After a while the effect of the drug wore off, and I needed more,"
she says. "As a result I started suffering from insomnia. I took
tablets for that, but it didn't help, so I took up hashish again as
well."

She acknowledges using what little money her sons could earn to
support her habit. When that proved insufficient, she started to sell
off her household belongings.

According to drug workers, the situation is much worse in
Afghanistan's conservative northern provinces, where many women
support their families by weaving carpets, and regularly give opium to
their children to keep them quiet while they work. The children
quickly become as addicted as their mothers. In the northern province
of Badakhshan, a remote and mountainous region close to the border
with Tajikistan, there are an estimated 5,000 opium addicts.

There is only one 100-bed hospital located in Kabul that treats drug
addiction in all of Afghanistan. The facility is so overcrowded many
patients are forced to sleep in the corridors. There are no beds set
aside to treat women.

For Afghan women seeking an end to their reliance on drugs and regain
control of their lives, the Nejat Center may be their only hope.

Parween Tulwasa is a journalist in Kabul who writes for the Institute
for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains
journalists in areas of conflict.