Nine-year-old Khalida Shah was eventually sold in Jalalabad, but her transformation into collateral began in Laghman Province, where her father pledged his poppy crop for a $2000 loan, and when those poppies were eradicated in a successful episode of America’s unending War on Drugs, Khalida became a “bride” of the 45-year-old creditor.
“It’s my fate,” the child says.