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Where a teen’s kidney once was, now a scar of poverty remains
Khalil Ahmad, 15, reveals the surgical scar left on his body after his kidney was sold to support his family. The photo was taken on Jan. 19, 2022.
Ahmad and his family live in a slum in the western Afghan city of Herat. His father, Gul Mohammed, had gone into major debt to buy food and medicine for his family.
Creditors had previously kidnapped Mohammed\'s 2-year-old son and threatened the family, demanding a ransom before releasing the child. Mohammed and his wife decided they were going to sell their kidneys, but ended up being unable to do so since Mohammed had kidney stones and his wife suffered from diabetes.
Their eldest son was earning US$3 per day collecting plastic. Eventually, Ahmad’s kidney was sold for US $3,500 to pay off the debt.
After the Taliban came to power in August 2021, 58 percent of Afghanistan\'s 40 million people faced extreme hunger due to natural disasters such as drought. Advertisements for the organ trade were placed on walls and street lamps in Herat. There was even a place called “One Kidney Village” where its inhabitants lived with one kidney after having sold the other one.
This photo was chosen as the “Photo Story of the Year” by World Press Photo. The World Press Photo contest is the world\'s largest press photography competition, with this year’s results having been announced on Thursday.
The photographer that captured the image of Ahmad is Mads Nissen, a photojournalist for the Danish newspaper Politiken. Nissen submitted this photo, titled “The Price of Peace in Afghanistan,” as part of a larger series showing Afghan people fighting poverty.
In 2015, Nissen won the World Press Photo contest for his photograph of Jon and Alex, a gay couple in Russia. Nissen is represented by Panos Pictures, an international agency for documentary photographers and filmmakers.
By Lee Jung-woo, senior staff writer
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