Interview with four Afghan refugees

Many of the people from Afghanistan who came to Germany as teenagers have long since become part of society: They live here, study here, and are socially and politically active. In this interview, four of them – Mahdie, Mostafa, Robina, and Parwana – share what it was like for them to arrive in Germany and how they perceive the current debates about Afghanistan in Germany.
 

All four of you fled Afghanistan or Iran as teenagers. How did you feel about having to leave your previous lives behind?

Robina: I came to Germany alone, without family, without my parents. Being here alone was very hard. You've fled somewhere and suddenly you have to do everything on your own and don't speak the language. The hardest thing was that no one was waiting for me at home after school. I was completely alone. I had to take care of everything.

Parwana: My family told me at the time that we would only travel to Iran for three months on vacation. After that, we would return to Afghanistan. They knew I would never have accepted simply leaving school and leaving forever. But my parents had to make this decision for all of us because my brothers were being threatened. 

How was it for you to arrive in Germany? 

Robina: After arriving in Berlin, I was sent to the accommodation in Tegel. I was only there for two or three days; I could hardly sleep. I was the only girl; I was so scared. The whole time, I was in endless pain, which was psychological, because I was so worried: I was a child in Afghanistan – and suddenly I was in this country with a different language, full of rules and responsibilities. What was particularly hard about the bureaucracy for me was how the Senate Administration and the immigration authorities treated me – even though I hadn't done anything and was simply seeking protection. After I was granted protection status, I asked myself: Who will pay for these three years of pain? Who will apologize for this? Can they ever give me back the youth they took from me? 

Mahdie: Yes, the bureaucracy was a big challenge for me too. Two years after I arrived, I turned 18 and was supposed to do an interview with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. I was asked a lot of questions about Afghanistan. But I'd never been to Afghanistan myself... I learned to find my way step by step. At first, it was very difficult to cope with the bureaucracy. I was quite young. I didn't understand life back then; I was just looking for security. 

Mostafa: For me, the most difficult part of the initial period was living in a home for an extended period, with four people sharing a room. I often couldn't sleep and kept wondering if it had really been worth coming here. I had lost everything: my country, my home, my family. At first, I had no friends and couldn't go to school. It was really boring; we were all depressed, which is why we often argued. 

Parwana: One important thing for me is that I crossed the border with my family. I can't even imagine how dangerous it must be for children and young people to have to make this journey all alone. 

Has there been a change in the way people in Germany react to the fact that you come from Afghanistan in the last year – especially after the terrorist attacks by Afghan nationals and the intensified deportation debates? 

Mahdie: I think that Afghanistan is often only discussed in Germany when something bad happens. Many people in Germany don't even know how people live in Afghanistan or how we are doing. There's often a lack of empathy. I rarely feel truly heard when Afghans are discussed. I wish for more genuine conversations where we can tell our stories. I wish our experiences were taken more seriously and that we weren't just seen as bad people.

Parwana: When I'm asked where I'm from and say Afghanistan, the response is always, "Oh, Taliban!" Or, "The girls aren't allowed to go to school, are they?" I once spoke at an event about the situation of refugees at the EU borders. Some questions from the audience are nasty, for example, about clothing or wearing a headscarf. They say, "You're not in Afghanistan anymore. There are no Taliban here. Why are you still wearing your headscarf?" That hurts. 

Mostafa: I'm really disappointed with the German media. The dire situation in Afghanistan isn't being discussed. They only report on it when someone carries out an attack, and then all Afghans are condemned. What do the other Afghans who go to school or are training here have to do with it? The media paints a negative picture of the Afghan refugees here in Germany. We are not the Taliban. On the contrary: Many of us fled the Taliban.

Parwana: We not only need to talk more about Afghanistan in general, but we also need to talk more about the minorities and what's happening to them. For example, we need to talk more about the Hazara genocide. There's also a large LGBTQ+ community in Afghanistan that's being persecuted. If we talk about that, a different picture of Afghanistan will emerge, one that many may not have seen yet.

What do you think about what German policy has decided regarding Afghanistan in recent years? 

Robina: After the Taliban regained power, the SPD, Greens, and FDP decided that they wanted to bring a thousand people from Afghanistan to Germany every month through the federal admission program. But overall, only a very small number were admitted to Germany. Meanwhile, I watched how people were dying in Afghanistan. That women were hiding. That imprisoned people were being raped, tortured, and then killed by the Taliban in their cells. But Germany always blamed bureaucracy, saying: "We still need this paper, and we need this, we need that." And now the program is even supposed to be stopped altogether.

Mostafa: Germany was deployed in Afghanistan for years, together with the US. They bear a great responsibility. They created great hope in Afghanistan – and then simply left the country. And now? Afghanistan has suddenly been forgotten. The country is only talked about when it comes to who can be deported. No one talks about the catastrophic human rights situation, the oppression of women in Afghanistan, or the poverty, hunger, and other important issues. 

Robina: Germany says, "What the Taliban are doing in Afghanistan right now is not right." And yet the German government is making agreements with other countries to deport Afghans. Or they even want to cooperate directly with the Taliban. There's a criminal code in Germany: If someone commits a crime, they must be convicted—this also applies to refugees, of course. But deporting people to Afghanistan violates human rights. It seems to me that in Germany, it doesn't matter whether people in Afghanistan are threatened with death. 

You read all this terrible news from Afghanistan, you hear from your friends there. How do you cope with it? And what motivates you to keep going? 

Mostafa: I will never forget where I come from and why I'm here. That always motivates me. And that's why I keep striving. I want to achieve my goals here. I notice that at school, for example: I'm very ambitious there.

Parwana: I think I can be a bridge between European society and the people in Afghanistan. The people here need this information—and the people in Afghanistan need to be heard. That motivates me to keep going.

Robina: I don't feel German. But I don't feel entirely Afghan either. I now live between two worlds. It often hurts to hear the news from Afghanistan – and then ask myself: What makes me different from an Afghan woman? What makes me different from a German woman? Women in Afghanistan also have rights. Why were they taken away from them? I tell myself: The Taliban know exactly how strong Afghan women are. They fight for their rights – and I believe that all women in the world possess this strength. That's why I want to give Afghan girls and women the feeling: You are not alone. We are fighting together.