Brown Sugar

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are heroin addicts. Politics wants the problem under the carpet return, while the life of those affected already takes place on the social floor.

Something rare breaks the silence in Kabul this morning: it is the loud voice of one

Woman. As every morning, Miriam washes the small veins of the Kabul River, which is the place to be Transport garbage from one end of the city to the other. Today she is in a rage. Together She is trying to reconstruct the day with her son-in-law, Reza, last week her husband, Mohammad Baz, was killed by a stone. "You killed him!", roars Miriam, her words scratching the air as she passes by. Angered, he looks at her: "No, you killed him and everybody knows it! "" Why should I? "," To have fun with others ". Now Miriam gets up. She has enough. Enough garbage in the face and enough of Reza. The Recalling details of said day is difficult for them. They were so high that they turned can barely remember. For years, the two bickering hard Heroinabhängig, as well Miriam's five children, her dead husband and an estimated four million more Afghans. "My man forced me into prostitution. I was not even 13 damn. "She's angry, but her Voice has caught. Cool, she says: "I slept with many men. Every evening with another. I had to. He left me no choice. I have taken care of all of us. " Furnished - the magic cue has fallen. Miriam gets up and starts the riverbed without a word to walk along. Practiced, she jumps in her plastic slippers over the water and bypasses the big piles of garbage that cover the sand. Reza dumbles after her, cursing. It is time for the first dose of the day.

They walk until they arrive at the bridge, their bad reputation always ahead of their heads is. Still farther ahead than the stink of human excrement, which hits you from afar sneaks: Pul-e-Sukhta, Kabul's subaltern heroin city. In the shadow of yellowed washed concrete seek refuge for thousands of addicts. Here you are among yourself and can do anything an addict inevitably must: buy drugs, consume, and finance them: by buying and selling of stolen goods or prostitution. Arrived they look for an entrance, because the dependent ones

have hung old blankets to the inner life of this mysterious world in front of onlookers shield. The rattle flutter softly as a curtain of desolation in the wind of commuters, who rush over their heads. Miriam pulls on a purple fabric. It works,

behind it the black interior gapes. The two enter and disappear. When she was twelve, Miriam was forcibly married. She did not know her husband then Heroin addict is. She did not even know what heroin is. Today she does it all too well:

Afghanistan is the world's largest exporter of the drug with a market share of 90%. Since the American intervention In 2001, the cultivation tripled.1 The fact is: Business is booming, the drug is everywhere and people are suffering. Every tenth person in Afghanistan is dependent. After a quarter of an hour, the curtain opens again and Miriam is back in the lax Riverbed. A few seconds later, Reza is there too. The two search hastily for a quiet Cookie. Now everything can not go fast enough. You lay the fabric on a rolled-up Chewing gum paper and light it. With the straw cut off, they breathe the sour smoke one. The eyes roll in the back of the head. Slowly, they tip over. Now they are fine. For a at least a few hours.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Nobody can really say how man addicts live under the Pul-e-sukhta Bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan.
i

Nobody can really say how man addicts live under the Pul-e-sukhta Bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Miriam next to the Kabul River in Kabul.
i

Miriam next to the Kabul River in Kabul.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Shadows from the Addicts and Spectators who watch the entry from above.
i

Shadows from the Addicts and Spectators who watch the entry from above.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

Leiluma (around 50, she doesn't know her exact age) sitting in her tent in the Riverbed. She used to be a carpet maker. Usually the carpet maker smoke during their work opium. Woman give their children to come down and to be quit. Lailuma had a big fight with her family and left her hometown to Kabul. She ended up under the bridge.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Lailuma has beautifully decorated her syringe.
i

Lailuma has beautifully decorated her syringe.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

The two doctors from the 100 bed hospital (Woman rehab center) go around old houses and the known places to look for addicted woman.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Miriam has decorated her tent.
i

Miriam has decorated her tent.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Lailuma smoking heroin.
i

Lailuma smoking heroin.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Miriam is in the detox clinic again. On her hand you can see stab wounds from the drug abuse.
i

Miriam is in the detox clinic again. On her hand you can see stab wounds from the drug abuse.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

The hospital bus came along this (from the stuff known) lady who got mad because some man in the street where bullying her on the basis of her addiction.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

She knows that the bus means to stay 45-60 days against her will in the rehab center. Its just a circulation, after she will be released she is gonna end again in the streets. Because there is no reintegration program or something.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

During their rehab the lady have the option to learn a Job. They have the choice between tailer and hairdresser. But its more occupational therapy.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

A police officer is holding packages of heroin in his hands. he says that they own to less money to feed their families so they steel the drugs from the addicts and resell them.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - One of Miriams friends is looking out of her tent.
i

One of Miriams friends is looking out of her tent.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Consuming man at the graveyard.
i

Consuming man at the graveyard.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Almost everything is happening outside. Even the shaving.
i

Almost everything is happening outside. Even the shaving.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Image from the Brown Sugar photography project
i

Miriam got hit for many times from her clients and from strangers. Its kind of a sport to watch the addicts from the bridge and throw stones on them.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - The view from the private clinic next to the bridge, who is not willing to take care of addicts.
i

The view from the private clinic next to the bridge, who is not willing to take care of addicts.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - A child has painted his mother with a heroin syringe through her heart.
i

A child has painted his mother with a heroin syringe through her heart.

© Johanna Maria Fritz - Some women say that there is no difference between a man and a woman under the bridge. Down under you are just an addict.
i

Some women say that there is no difference between a man and a woman under the bridge. Down under you are just an addict.

Latest Projects

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Stay in the loop


We will send you weekly news on contemporary photography. You can change your mind at any time. We will treat your data with respect. For more information please visit our privacy policy. By ticking here, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with them. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.