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House of Happiness

Age 36, Aselya started injecting heroin after she realized her husband was cheating on her. Shortly after, he left her and her parents departed to Russia together with Aselya's daughter. Aselya has been a female sex worker servicing clients on call for $15 an hour ever since. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007

Age 36, Aselya started injecting heroin after she realized her husband was cheating on her. Shortly after, he left her and her parents departed to Russia together with Aselya's daughter. Aselya has been a female sex worker servicing clients on call for $15 an hour ever since. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007

Gula, a 22 year old Uzbek woman left her husband because he took a second wife. She now sells icecream in a park. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 House of Happiness: Women at Risk in the Ferghana Valley The unsettled cartography of Central Asia puts the Ferghana Valley - a geographical and cultural mishmash where three countries and many ethnicities cluster - in the middle of the multi-billion dollar heroin trafficking route from Afghanistan. According to the United Nations, nearly 60 percent of the opiates from Afghanistan destined for Russia and Europe are trafficked through this ancient Silk route, now known as “the heroin highway”. Much of the poorer quality heroin lands in urban centers such as Osh, a city in southern Kyrgyzstan, feeding the ever-growing addiction rates there. In the post-Soviet economic ruin, Kyrgyzstan’s per capita income is second lowest in the CIS region after Tajikistan. Staggering poverty - resulting in rampant drug crime, prostitution, and a concomitant and spiraling HIV rate are the modern day ingredients to this Central Asian cocktail. House of Happiness documents family and cultural rituals in the traditional society of Ferghana Valley, a post-Soviet region that is undergoing a revival of radical Islam. “House of Happiness”, a Soviet holdover institution where couples officially register their marriages, is an ironic name for a story about a place where young brides are kidnapped, polygamy is practiced in the name of Islam and forced marriages are a social norm. When you enter the “House of Happiness”, you see a cheerful facade, but behind this fake colored curtain, there are hidden women victims, husbands introducing their wives to heroin, divorcees trafficked into prostitution. In the conservative societies of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which raise girls to be wives and mothers, women are not empowered. Their lack of quality education and absolute dependence on men both economically and culturally makes them more vulnerable to the risks of drug use and sex trafficking. In this particular milieu where marriage is a cult, and divorce a stigma, women are not prepared to handle, let alone live, independent lives. Sisters in law at a wedding. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Circumcized boy at a "Small Wedding" celebrated in his honor in a Gypsy neighborhood of Osh. Small Wedding here is actually referred to a big circumcision party gathering of about 400 people, neighbors and friends from the Gypsy quarter. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Family attending a wedding party. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Owner of wedding dress store. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Uzbek groom posing for his wedding picture. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Woman working in a shooting gallery in a park. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Women slide down the Suleyman holy mountain believing that it could cure back pain. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Photographer, she decorated her own photo stand in a park. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Women attending a waterfall that local residents believe to be holly in Arslanbob, a predominantly Uzbek city in Ferghana Valley. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Newborn on his mother's belly in Osh maternity hospital. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Elmira, age 22 inside her room at the Dormitory No 9 brothel. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Female sex workers lit by car light on Kyrgystan street - the main road for client pick up. The women work in groups as they fear working the road alone at night. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Nadira, 24-year old sex worker at the doorstep of her room in Dormitory No 9 brothel. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Sisters Gulnara and Nargiza are playing with pornographic cards left over from a client. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Sisters Gulnara 22 (left), Dilara 21 (middle) and Nigora 13 (right) pose with the "Azan" clock that rings with the call to prayer instead of a regular bell. They are originally from Uzbekistan and crossed the border to find work in Osh. They live and work in Dormitory No 9 brothel. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Nigora fixing her hair holding her sister's mirror. Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Tanya, 40 y.o. has been a heroin addict for half of her life. She lives with her mother, brother and adopted son Sasha in a metal container in the middle of an apple orchard on the outskirts of Osh. Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Age 36, Aselya started injecting heroin after she realized her husband was cheating on her. Shortly after, he left her and her parents departed to Russia together with Aselya's daughter. Aselya has been a female sex worker servicing clients on call for $15 an hour ever since. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Liza and Vitya shooting up heroin at home. Liza shares a room with an HIV positive tatoo artist and heroin addict Vitya. Their landlord Sima is 22 years old and an alcoholic. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Liza served three years in a Bishkek prison for being caught with a dose of heroin that she had tried to hide in her hair. She is a former sex worker, but has not worked the road for a year, since being run over by a car at night. Liza's husband introduced her to heroin as a painkiller, as she suffered from complications resulting from an abortion. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Liza's scar from injecting heroin into an infected blood vessel that burst open as a result. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007 Liza's landlord Sima's bed. Sima is 22 and alcoholic. Osh, Kyrgyzstan. September, 2007