The Frontline documentary programme Opium Brides, which airs on PBS America this week, explores the unintended and often tragic consequences of Afghanistan’s efforts to bring down the opium trade.
Reported by award-winning Afghan-British journalist Najibullah Quraishi, the programme examines the effects of sweeping reform through interviews with the victims of Afghanistan’s counter-narcotics programme, as well as the officials who enforce it.
The story is told through the account of a farming family based in the Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. When their opium crop was destroyed as part of the government’s opium eradication programme and they were unable to repay the drug-traffickers they had borrowed money from, they were forced to hand over their seven-year-old daughter.
Opium Brides airs on PBS America Friday 16 February at 10:15pm.
