Photo Credit: Esther Sharma

When I visited Gulpari,* I found her sitting in the corner of a room. Given the hot summer weather outside, the room was surprisingly dark and damp. On the other side of the room, her 18-month old daughter lies asleep on the floor, covered with flies, with only a thin sheet separating them from her small face and body. Her two older daughters run around semi-naked in the small courtyard outside. Next to Gulpari, a tightly swaddled newborn baby girl lies quietly in a crudely made cradle. In a country where boys are prized, having another girl does not bode well for this Afghan mother. Gulpari once gave birth to a baby boy. She recalls how his head got stuck after his body was born and when his head finally came out hours later, he was stillborn.

Since then, Gulpari and a few of her local…