Shirini

Shirini -- which literally means "sweets" in Persian language ("shirin" = sweet) and its Dari variant spoken in Afghanistan—is the euphemism commonly used for bribes. In Afghanistan this has taken place under the Karzai administration. This can be attributed to the rampant culture of corruption and especially graft from low-level police officers, who receive low salaries and are said to take bribes to subsist, to the highest level of government officials. Many interactions with authorities require "shirini" – like getting a new driver's license or paying a water or electricity bill. This discontent drove a wedge between the government and the Afghan people, who became increasingly resentful of the established politics under this administration. It would turn people toward the fundamentalist Taliban, which were perceived as relatively "clean". The western donors of Afghanistan and also by Afghan politicians, view the taming of corruption as crucial to the future of the country. As such, all candidates in the presidential elections in 2009 pledged to fight it. According to a survey by "Integrity Watch Afghanistan" in 2007, the average Afghan household had to pay round about $100 yearly in petty bribes, while 70 percent of the families in the poverty-stricken country survive on less than $1 a day.
The report of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) titled "Corruption in Afghanistan: Bribery as Reported by Victims", published in January 2010, calculated that Afghans had paid a staggering $1.2 billion bribes over a 12-month period ending Autumn 2009 – roughly equal to one quarter of the national GDP.