At the Mercy of the Highway

At the Mercy of the Highway

A month ago, a heroin-addicted woman gave birth to a child alongside a Tehran freeway. Forced into homelessness by drug addiction and poverty, she and her partner continue to live on the side of the road with their newborn child, whose birth has not been registered. Iran has the highest rate of heroin addiction in the world, exacerbated by volumes of cheap heroin that flood across the border from Afghanistan, whose export of heroin has grown exponentially since the 2001 American invasion.