Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Afiya’s* frail fingers pick at the loose threads of her worn dark-brown sweater as she sits at the edge of her bed in the rehabilitation ward of Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar.
With faded and stained clothes hanging loosely on her thin frame, eyes down-cast, she says: “I used to dream of flying high above the mountains, touching the blue sky as a flight attendant. Now, I am stuck in a nightmare, high on drugs, fighting for my life.”
