Afghan Children Behind Bars

Shiringul, serving 20 years for being part of a ring of serial killers who robbed and murdered taxi drivers, smokes a cigarette near her two children Malina, age 7 left, and Hekmatullah, age 6, inside their cell at Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008. There are 226 young children in Afghan prisons, including many who were born there.

Afghan children of female inmates peek to watch a television hanging on the bunk of Adele, a South African national who declined to give her last name and has served 2 years of a 7-year sentence for drug trafficking inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008. The children have committed no crime, but they live among the country's 304 incarcerated women.

To keep the boy from misbehaving, Bezad, (born one and a half years ago inside prison), is tied to the bunk bed of his mother Wazhma, who is serving a 7-year sentence for adultery at Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

One-and-a-half year old Mansour lashes out at everyone around him inside his mother's prison cell where he was born inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

Zalmai, age 8, waits in front of the curtain covering the door to their prison cell where he has lived for four years with his mother Parigul, whose crime was running away from home, at Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

Female inmates and their children move inside the hallways of the cell blocks inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

Jamila, left, plays on a seesaw with children of other female inmates on the prison yard of Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

The hand prints and scuff marks made by children of female prison inmates cover the hallway walls inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

Habiba, who has completed three years of a 10-year prison sentence for murder, holds her daughter Nazanin, who was born in jail three years ago but still cannot walk, as they rest in their bunk bed inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

The child of an inmate named Makai, seen bottom left, tries to pull back the veil of a cellmate inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008. Makai, 27, was arrested for the crime of running away from home but was released by a pardon of President Hamid Karzai on May 10, 2008.

An inmate walks with her infant child as a child of another inmate stands nearby in the prison yard at Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.

Children of female prison inmates attend morning school lessons inside a prison cell converted into a nursery school inside Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2008.