Working in Kabul’s shadows, AP journalists deliver a striking package on the Taliban’s hard-line measures against drug addicts.
From a fetid bridge underpass frequented by addicts, to a police station, to a grim drug detoxification ward, this all-formats package driven by powerful visuals takes a stunning look at Afghanistan’s drug underworld and the severe treatment of heavy drug users by the Taliban. The work also bears witness to AP’s robust reporting from Afghanistan, which has continued unabated since the Taliban takeover.
Dusseldorf, Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, Barcelona, Spain, photographer Felipe Dana and Baghdad correspondent Samya Kullab, all currently on assignment in Kabul, gained rare access to this especially bleak segment of Afghan life, where hundreds of homeless men addicted to heroin and methamphetamines are rounded up, beaten and forcibly taken to treatment centers.
The story presented significant challenges. Over the course of several weeks the journalists surveyed locations where addicts gather, building a relationship with them so that they would agree to be photographed and interviewed on camera.
Documenting the Taliban crackdown was also the product of patient negotiations with the new regime; Taliban officials rarely give foreign journalists access to their operations. In the end, luck played a part: After several refusals, Chernov and Dana happened to be present when the Taliban anti-drug unit turned up to haul drug users away. One man lay dead among the drug users, reportedly beaten during a Taliban raid.
Afghan men use heroin in Kabul, Oct. 1, 2021. They come from varied backgrounds: poets, soldiers, merchants, farmers. Old or young, poor or once well-off, most are now homeless and addicted.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Afghans gather under a bridge to consume drugs, mostly heroin and methamphetamines, in Kabul, Sept. 30, 2021. The illicit opium trade is intertwined with Afghanistan’s economy and its turmoil. Poppy growers are part of an important rural constituency for the Taliban, and most rely on the harvest to make ends meet.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Amid piles of garbage and streams of filthy water, Afghans gather under a bridge to use drugs, mostly heroin and methamphetamines, in Kabul, Sept. 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Afghan men sit under a bridge to use drugs, in Kabul, Sept. 30, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
The body of a dead man lays on the ground under a bridge in an area frequented by drug users, in Kabul, Sept. 30, 2021. Drug users at the site said he was beaten during a Taliban raid and was found dead next morning.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid wait to be checked at a police station before being transferred to the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul, Oct. 1, 2021. At least 150 men were taken to the district police station, where all their belongings — drugs, wallets, knifes, rings, lighters, a juice box — were burned in a pile since they are forbidden at the treatment center.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid wait in a bus as they are transferred to the Avicenna Medical Hospital for detoxification treatment, in Kabul, Oct. 1, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid are shaved after arriving at Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul, Oct. 1, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A drug user detained during a Taliban raid is shaved after arriving at Avicenna Medical Hospital for detoxification, in Kabul, Oct. 2, 2021. Soon after the Taliban took power on Aug. 15, the Taliban Health Ministry issued an order to facilities underscoring their intention to strictly control widespread addiction, doctors said.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A drug user undergoing treatment gestures from inside the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul, Oct. 2, 2021. The heavy-handed methods are welcomed by some health workers, who have had no choice but adapt to Taliban rule. “We are not in a democracy anymore, this is a dictatorship. And the use of force is the only way to treat these people,” said Dr. Fazalrabi Mayar, referring specifically to Afghans addicted to heroin and meth.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid walk to a shower after arriving at Avicenna Medical Hospital for detoxification treatment, in Kabul, Oct. 2, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid wait for a medical check in the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital in Kabul, Oct. 2, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained in a Taliban raid wait to be taken to their room in the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital in Kabul, Oct. 2, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid are taken to their room at the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid rest at the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 4, 2021.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Dr. Wahedullah Koshan, left, head psychiatrist, gestures as he talks to Sitara, center, at the Avicenna Medical Hospital, Oct. 4, 2021, after she was reunited with her 21-year-old son, right, who was missing for 12 days after a Taliban drug raid. “My entire life is my son,” Sitara said weeping.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
The team also had remarkable access to report and record inside a forbidding drug treatment ward where they observed near-skeletal patients, interviewed doctors and witnessed the emotional reunion of a wailing mother and with her 21 year-old son who had been missing for 12 days.
Dana and Chernov delivered riveting images, gritty and painfully intimate, representing AP’s photo and video journalism at its best.
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid wait to be shaved after arriving at Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul, Oct. 1, 2021. SOme 700 patients float around the hospital’s halls like ghosts. Some say they aren't being fed enough; doctors said hunger is part of the withdrawal process.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Kullab’s text is no less compelling, adding layers and detail to the package, including context around the Taliban’s own role in the drug trade and their motivations going forward. “This is just the beginning, later we will go after the farmers, and we will punish them according to (Islamic) Sharia law,” a lead patrol officer told AP.
The trio’s exceptional work is all the more notable coming out of Kabul, where journalism is difficult and often dangerous. AP’s bureau remains in transition: Several staffers had to be evacuated and our relationship with the country’s new rulers, who have a history of violent intolerance toward the press, remains uncertain.
For a rare exclusive that sets a high standard for coverage while shedding light on a harsh reality in Afghanistan, the team of Chernov, Dana and Kullab is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
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