Afghanistan's Carpet Loomers Are Feeding Their Kids Hashish

Why Afghanistan's Carpet Loomers Are Feeding Their Children Hashish
Afghan weaver and child sort thread for carpets at a traditional carpet factory in Jalalabad on June 7, 2013. Carpet weaving is one of the ancient and traditional arts of Afghanistan and with the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, weavers are able to export their carpets to customers across the world. AFP PHOTO/Noorullah SHIRZADA (Photo credit should read Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)
Afghan weaver and child sort thread for carpets at a traditional carpet factory in Jalalabad on June 7, 2013. Carpet weaving is one of the ancient and traditional arts of Afghanistan and with the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, weavers are able to export their carpets to customers across the world. AFP PHOTO/Noorullah SHIRZADA (Photo credit should read Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)

Like most women in Afghanistan’s Qalizal District, Bebehaja’s life is told on the strings of a carpet loom. It’s a vocational inheritance of women of Turkmen heritage, who begin as early as seven and may not stop until they’re 70. It’s as linear and taut as the cords on which they weave, unspooling balls of yarn over minutes, hours, days, decades creating masterful motifs, while simultaneously emptying themselves of the same beauty and comfort they put into the things that they create.

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