In Somalia, educated women sell narcotic khat

Estimates indicate that 75 percent of men use the addictive drug.
WASHINGTON POST
WAJID, Somalia -- Before Somalia's government collapsed in 1991, Maryann Ali was an elementary school teacher who spent her days giving fifth-graders geography and math lessons.
Now she earns a living dealing khat, a narcotic plant that when chewed yields a jittery high and feelings of invincibility that later melt into a lethargic stupor.
Educated Somali women such as Ali dominate the khat trade, a profession that is both admired and scorned here, and that offers one of the few remaining job opportunities in the country's moribund economy.
"If the country was ever normal, I'd quit and return to teaching," said Ali, 40, who guards her stash with an AK-47 and has a gold tooth that she says makes her appear "tough." "What else can I do to survive?"
Somalia, a country of more than 8 million ruled by warlords, has the highest percentage of khat users in the world, researchers say. Scarred by violence and raised in anarchy, a generation of young Somalis say King Khat, or miracle miraa, as the drug is known, helps ease the pain.
Estimated usage
Researchers estimate that 75 percent of adult males use the drug. Every town has khat rooms, where men lounge for hours listening to blaring music and chewing wads of green leaves that ooze saliva and stick between their teeth.
The consumption of alcohol and most drugs is socially unacceptable in this Muslim country, but chewing and dealing khat are considered gray areas. So Ali, a mother of 10, peddles the narcotic, which she said enables her to earn money and abide by the philosophy of Somalia's tight-knit clans: "Above all, provide and protect."
Khat is legal in much of sub-Saharan Africa and enjoyed throughout the Horn of Africa and in parts of the Middle East, especially in Yemen. It is illegal in several African countries, the United States and across Europe.
In 1980, the World Health Organization declared khat a highly addictive drug, and East African leaders have campaigned against it, saying chronic use leads to high divorce rates, wife beatings and job loss. In Somalia, opponents call the habit a national epidemic.