Pul-i-Sukhta means burning bridge in Dari. It is an overpass crossing the filthy Kabul river in the West of the Afghan capital. The cavern-like space under the bridge is where the city’s Heroin addicts meet, where they smoke or shoot the drug, where they struggle along in horrible conditions, among them many women and children. One of the unlucky addicts is Mariam, now 30 years old. Born in Iran to refugee parents from Afghanistan, she was married off to a heroin user when she was only eleven. Interrupted by short spells in rehab clinics she has lived under the Pul-i-Sukhta and on the streets of Kabul for the last 15 years, giving birth to four children and seeing her husband murdered. On every return to Kabul the sad question arises: Is Mariam still here, or has she gone forever?

2018