Levine: A year of the Taliban — Three women wait for their new life in Canada to start

‘I can explain the situation (of Afghan refugees in Pakistan), but I can’t express their pain.’

Article content

One year ago this week, the fundamentalist Taliban re-entered Kabul after 20 years and seized control of Afghanistan’s government. Canadian human rights researcher and writer Corey Levine, who has worked in war zones for more than 25 years, recently travelled to Afghanistan to see what life is like for women today. This is the final of five reports.

Advertisement 2

Article content

***

ISLAMABAD — Zuhal, Rokhshana and Tahmina are three young Afghan refugees living in limbo in Islamabad, Pakistan, while waiting to see if their private sponsorship applications will be accepted by the Canadian government. The women all say the same thing when asked what is the first thing they’ll do when they arrive in Canada: hug the people who are privately sponsoring them as refugees.

All three are women’s rights activists who fled Afghanistan in fear for their lives after the Taliban took power last August. Until they were chosen to be sponsored by their respective groups, they faced an uncertain future here that was not much better than what they had left behind in Afghanistan: unable to work and fearful of the police.

Advertisement 3

Article content

The three, who did not know one other before they began sharing a flat in Islamabad, realize they are among the lucky few. They are being given a chance to live free from fear in Canada while their family, friends, colleagues and many thousands of other Afghans will not be afforded the same opportunity.

I had met each of them previously, online, as part of the volunteer work I was doing to help Afghans at risk, and had organized their respective sponsorship groups: individuals living in the same community who had come together to sponsor a refugee. Most of the members of each sponsorship group were unknown to me, but were simply happy to provide sanctuary to vulnerable people forced to flee their homes.

Zuhal, Rokhshana and Tahmina agreed to tell their stories over pizza at a local restaurant when I meet them for the first time in person in Islamabad in mid-June. We shared laughter and tears, as well as food.

Advertisement 4

Article content

Zuhal survived a suicide bombing attack in 2019 at the office of the international NGO in Kabul where she worked as a women’s rights trainer. She was targeted by the Taliban as a U.S. spy for six months after. The threats and harassment restarted immediately after the Taliban took control of the country last August.

Rokhshana worked as a high-ranking civilian at the Ministry of Defence before the fall of the government and became a leader of the women’s protest movement after the Taliban came to power. She spent several months in a safe house after some of her protest colleagues were arrested before she was able to escape the country.

Tahmina fled to Pakistan when she learned that the Taliban had raided the Kabul office of the local disability rights organization where she worked, arresting her colleagues.

Advertisement 5

Article content

Despite their different ethnicities (Zuhal is Tajik, Rokhshana is Hazara and Tahmina is Pashtun), they share the same pain. As Rokhshana says, “We are all women, all feminists, all Afghan, all suffering.” Although the tight bond the three have formed is obvious, uppermost on their minds is worry for the families they have left behind in Afghanistan.

‘We are all women, all feminists, all Afghan, all suffering.’

They are both nervous and excited about what awaits them when they arrive in Victoria, B.C., their final destination, where the three sponsorship groups live. They hope to continue their education (all have Bachelor degrees), but recognize there will be a huge learning curve before they are fully settled in their new country.

In the meantime, they are coping with the challenges of being asylum seekers, such as the discrimination Afghans face in Pakistan. “For Afghans, Pakistan is not a place to have a life. There is no future for us, no education for children or access to health care,” Rokhshana says. “Many Afghans are arrested and turned over to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Others face harassment by the Pakistani police, many of whom are also Taliban.”

Advertisement 6

Article content

While the three feel safer in Pakistan than in their home country and are able to go out shopping and visit other Afghan refugees, they say Afghans are taken advantage of every day in Pakistan. Landlords hike up rents and shopkeepers raise the prices of goods in neighbourhoods where Afghans tend to congregate.

“Pakistanis have a mindset that Afghans have a lot of money because the international community put a lot of resources into Afghanistan for 20 years,” Zuhal says. It’s far from the case. Tahmina says “every Afghan here has mental health issues because of their experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan but most don’t have a pathway out.”

Statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that there are currently 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Syed Laiquat Banori, chair of the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP), UNHCR’s official partner in Pakistan, estimates that the number of Afghans in Pakistan is likely double this.

Advertisement 7

Article content

Syed Liaqat Banori, founder and chair, Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP).
Syed Liaqat Banori, founder and chair, Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP). Photo by Courtesy of Corey Levine /jpg

There are many reasons Afghans don’t register as asylum seekers, including fear that they will be deported or fear that their personal information will be turned over to the Pakistani authorities who will then share it with their counterparts in Afghanistan.

I meet Banori, who founded SHARP 23 years ago, in his quiet office in the suburbs of Islamabad. It is only 10 a.m., but already the temperature has hit 39 C. He tells me that the influx of desperate Afghans since the Taliban retook power last August has severely strained what limited resources there are for asylum seekers and that Pakistan is ill-equipped to handle the sheer volume of refugees.

“There is no humanitarian program for Afghan refugees in Pakistan,” he says. While the needs of the refugees are myriad, “the biggest issue is shelter,” says Banori. “This is particularly critical to prevent the exploitation of women and girls.”

Advertisement 8

Article content

Talk turns to the two Afghan tent encampments that sprang up several months ago, one of which I passed on my way to his office. One encampment of approximately 500 to 600 people — primarily judges, prosecutors and other civil servants from the previous government — is demanding resettlement. Many have colleagues who were killed simply because of their association with the former government. This encampment is known as “Save Us.”

The other tent city of 700 to 800 people — journalists, human-rights defenders and ethnic minority Hazaras — occupies a park near the Islamabad press club. It’s known as the “Kill Us” encampment, for the large signs expressing this sentiment strategically placed near the road so passersby can see. It’s not meant literally; according to Banori, the sentiment on the signs reflects the frustration and despair of the encampment residents that there is no solution for them. It is too unsafe to return to Afghanistan, yet western countries have only accepted a trickle compared to the number of vulnerable Afghans desperate to find alternatives to the precarious situation in Pakistan.

Advertisement 9

Article content

Despite its location near the press club the encampment is not reported on by the Pakistani press, according to Banori. Neither is the other one.

Both camps speak to the desperation of Afghans, many of whom are in Pakistan without visas. (Visas to Pakistan for Afghans can be expensive and hard to come by, generating a brisk black-market trade. Valid visas longer than three months are particularly difficult to get and can cost more than $1,000 U.S.)

Banori says the Pakistani authorities routinely round up unregistered Afghans and send them back to the Taliban in Afghanistan in order “to show the public that they are taking care of security.” Twenty-two Afghans, he says, were arrested a few days previously and sent back to Afghanistan where they will likely face detention, torture or execution. “The Pakistani government is involved in its own political survival. They don’t care about Afghans.”

Advertisement 10

Article content

As I gather up my belongings to leave, Banori quietly comments, “I can explain the situation (of Afghan refugees in Pakistan), but I can’t express their pain.”

Stories like the deportation of their 22 fellow countrymen are why Zuhal, Rokhshana and Tahmina are so grateful for the generosity of Canadians they have never met. “I’m amazed at how much total strangers care,” says Tahmina. “I was going through hell. My sponsorship group has really helped me. They text me everyday and share photos of their lives in Victoria.

“This gives me energy and courage.”

According to Adeena Niazi, founder and executive director of the Toronto-based Afghan Women’s Organization (AWO), Canada’s private sponsorship program, which began in 1979 in response to the massive displacement of Vietnamese people, is unique in the world. A few other countries, such as Australia, have been using the Canadian model to develop private sponsorship programs of their own, but are more limited.

Advertisement 11

Article content

Adeena Niazi is the executive director for the Afghan Women’s Organization. She was formerly a lecturer at Kabul University, Afghanistan and arrived in Canada in 1988 as a refugee.
Adeena Niazi is the executive director for the Afghan Women’s Organization. She was formerly a lecturer at Kabul University, Afghanistan and arrived in Canada in 1988 as a refugee. Photo by Jack Boland /Jack Boland/Toronto Sun

AWO, which has sponsored more than 5,000 refugees from around the world over the past 27 years, is heavily involved in the sponsorship of Afghans fleeing the current crisis. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has set up a special humanitarian program to identify and expedite sponsorship of Afghans at risk, which includes women leaders, human rights defenders, LGBTQ individuals and members of persecuted ethnic and religious minorities.

IRCC has set aside 7,000 private sponsorship spaces for Afghans such as Zuhal, Rokhshana and Tahmina, although the ministry has used some of these spaces for those already destined to come to Canada before the Afghan government fell, but who had been lingering in a bureaucratic backlog.

Advertisement 12

Article content

Niazi is happy that the government has committed to bringing in at least 40,000 Afghans, while acknowledging there are other vulnerable populations in need of Canadian assistance. “These programs should not impact those others who are also in need of protection.” For her the solution is to create more flexibility and to put more resources into the private sponsorship program. Studies have shown that those who have been privately sponsored tend to fare better than government-sponsored refugees. This is in large part due to the sense of social cohesion provided by private sponsorship groups, many of whom go on to establish life-long bonds with those they have sponsored.

For Niazi, private sponsorship is a no-brainer. Over the years she has seen lives transformed by the program — not just the refugees, but also the Canadians sponsoring them.

Advertisement 13

Article content

As for Zuhal, Rokhshana and Tahmina, being sponsored to come to Canada is like a dream. Despite the risk to their families in Afghanistan, they decided to share their stories publicly in order to encourage other Canadians to get involved in private sponsorship. As Zuhal explains, “We are just a small example of how Canada has supported Afghans. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity and look forward to giving back to Canada.”

Corey Levine is a human rights and peacebuilding consultant, researcher and writer who has been working in war zones for more than 25 years. She has been travelling to Afghanistan since March 2002, working for a variety of organizations including the United Nations and Amnesty International. Levine returned to Afghanistan again in June.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

For further information on private sponsorship in Canada, please see the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program  and the ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizen Canada

You can see how many Afghans have arrived in Canada under the special immigration program or the humanitarian program here.

Advertisement 1

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

Leave a Comment