TO NEIGHBOURS, Sheima looks like a kindergarten teacher. The diminutive 26-year-old Afghan sets off from her mud-brick house in west Kabul each morning in a headscarf, long shirt and baggy pants. She even tucks textbooks under her arm to keep up the illusion.
But Sheima’s job is far from elementary. She is part of a new counter-narcotics force fighting on the front line of Afghanistan’s war on drugs. Once she has made her way through the dusty chaos of Kabul’s streets, she swaps her traditional garb for khaki fatigues, combat boots, dark sunglasses and an AK-47 Kalashnikov.
“I have to live a double life,†said Sheima, who — unusually for an Afghan woman — wears her hair short and chews gum.
“Only my immediate family know what I do. I haven’t even told my other relatives because the heroin traders have spies everywhere. If they found out, they’d probably kill me.â€