TANYA* (AFGHANISTAN) “...I still have one foot in Afghanistan and the other foot in Canada.” Life before Canada C A m H 64 u 66 68 70 72 Mur 74 H ° D ° ° ° a-ye ° gho ° ar y b INA ya UZBEKISTAN r INA a AFGHANISTAN D Qurghonteppa TAJIKISTAN Birthplace and Family Kerki (Kurgan-Tyube) Mary Kiroya iz M rm Dusti Khorugh u e BADAKHSHAN r T g a Keleft Rostaq FayzFayzabad Abad I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 1, b ir Qala-I-Panjeh Andkhvoy Jeyretan am JAWZJAN P Mazar-e-Sharif KUNDUZ TaluqanTaloqan Jorm 1989. Prior to coming to Canada, I lived in TURKMENISTAN Shiberghan Kunduz h Eshkashem s Dowlatabad BALKH Kholm Khanabad TAKHAR u Peshawar, Pakistan. I am a Muslim. My family speaks T K e d Baghlan Farkhar 36 z ° h Shulgarah e u 36 Farsi. I speak Farsi, Urdu, Pashtu, and English. I n Sari Pul Aybak Dowshi ° d y Maymana g BAGHLAN h SAMANGAN n Gilgit s have two brothers (Atash and Babur), one sister u FARYAB Tokzar i G ISLAMIC Qeysar PANJSHER H AFGHANISTAN r Gushgy a SARI PUL Bazarak n (Azin), and my mother (Afshan) and father (Asa). I u Jammu BADGHIS Mahmud-e- NURISTAN K Towraghondi Raqi ns had a very good relationship with all my family. Taybad oru KUNAR Mo Chaharikar N P and Qala-e-Naw rghab BAMYAN KAPISA A PARWAN M Asad Abad Mehtarlam Dowlat Bamyan H HiratHerat Chaghcharan Yar G Kashmir H Karokh A ar Owbeh Maydan Kabul ir L Jalalabad ud Shahr KABUL My father died before we moved to Pakistan. Prior 34 WARDAK Mardan REPUBLIC REPUBLIC ° NANGARHAR 34 GHOR DAY LOGAR K ° HERATHIRAT h to my father’s death, my mother, Afshan, worked y Pul-e-Alam b Peshawar KUNDI Peywar Pass e Islamabad r d P an ass as a nurse. My father was an Afghani government Nili lm Gardez He Ghazni Rawalpindi PAKTYA KHOST employee. He died in a fire of a government Shindand- GHAZNI Qarah Bagh Khost (Matun) Bannu Anar Darreh Khas Uruzgan Sharan building where he worked. We believe that the fire PAKISTAN b a URUZGAN d n t FARAH ha was set by the Taliban. I was almost 12 when Father ru rg a Now Zad A H Farah Tirin Kot PAKTIKA OF OF h 32 ra ZABUL h passed away and brother Atash had just been born. a Kajaki ra ° F u 32 m k L Tank ° a Qalat a -e Delar rn d Ta w Ro h Lashkar Gah IRAN as National capital Kh Kandahar We left Afghanistan because of the war with the s Zhob u Provincial capital Kadesh d Zabol n Taliban rebels, who caused my father’s death. I Town, village The boundaries and names shown and the designations HILMAND used on this map do not imply official endorsement or Zaranj Spin Buldak INDI ✈ Airports After he died, there was no one to support us. Chaman acceptance by the United Nations. NIMROZ Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control International boundary KANDAHAR in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. A The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been Provincial boundary A My mother couldn’t work in Afghanistan and she H Chehar ilmand Deh Shu agreed upon by the parties. 30 Main road ° Borjak Quetta 30 wasn’t allowed to be outside her home without a 0 50 100 150 200 250 km Secondary road ° male accompanying her. It was hard for my mother Zahedan Gowd-e Railroad Zereh 0 50 100 150 mi because one of my uncles was giving her a hard 62° 64° 66° 68° 70° 72° 74° Map No. 3958 Rev. 7 UNITED NATIONS Department of Field Support time. He wouldn’t help her. June 2011 Cartographic Section © United Nations/Department of Field Support, Cartographic Section. Map No. 3958 Rev. 7. June 2011. Map of * To protect the participant`s privacy, pseudonyms have been Afghanistan. CC License. <https://www.un.org/depts/Cartographic/map/profile/afghanis.pdf>. used in this narrative. 96 Life in Peshawar, Pakistan The Soviet war was followed by a period of AFGHANISTAN We travelled to Pakistan by car and sometimes Mujahedeen control and infighting from on foot through the mountains because the 1989–1994. During this period, various factions The current borders of Afghanistan date back to Taliban was checking who was leaving. It was within the Mujadeen fought for power and control. the 1893 Durand Line Agreement that followed far from Afghanistan. I wasn’t happy to leave the second Anglo-Afghan war of 1878–1881. The During the Mujadeen period of internal conflict, because we had just lost our father. We realized agreement resulted in the split of the Pashtun a new group, the Taliban, emerged. The Taliban that we could get an education in Pakistan and tribes between Afghanistan and British India (part sought to establish an Islamic state according to have opportunities to work. We knew that there, of which today is Pakistan). Afghanistan gained full the conservative “Deobandi” Pashtun traditions in we would have the freedom to choose what we independence from British control in 1919. Afghanistan. The group, led by Mullah Muhammad wanted to do. We had friends in Pakistan who helped us get settled. The Pakistani people were War and Conflict Omar, consisted primarily of ethnic Pashtuns from eastern Afghanistan who were educated in helpful giving my mother a job and a place to live. Afghanistan has experienced over 40 years of Pakistan’s madrassas (religious seminaries). They We felt safer there. But, there were also some almost continuous political instability, war, and came to prominence and dominated Afghanistan Pakistani people who were not so helpful. Some of conflict. This period of instability and conflict from 1994 to 2001. them gave our family a hard time. began in 1973 with the coup that saw the overthrow of King Zahir Shah. This was followed The Taliban regime attracted the attention of the For example, a down payment, which my mother by the Saur revolution in 1978 that led to the international community by providing a safe haven had saved to buy a house, was stolen from us control of the nation by a Marxist government that for al-Qaeda, allowing the presence of the militant by a big (important) man in the local Pakistani was closely allied and supported by Russia. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to function, community. We gave him the money but were not the systemic discrimination against women and even given the house to rent. We could not do Opposition from Islamist parties, collectively girls, and the illicit opium production. This led to anything about it because he was powerful. We known as the Mujahedeen, to the Marxist international intervention and the launching of the couldn’t complain to the police. We were afraid government and its policy changes led to civil US Operation, Enduring Freedom, late in 2001. that if we did, we would be killed. We know that war, when the Soviet Union intervened and sent he cheated us as well as another family. We were From 2001 to the present, the war has had an its armed forces into the country. The Soviet War forced to move back to our previous landlord, a international element. Although the Taliban were in Afghanistan lasted from 1979 to 1989. The war good person who allowed us to stay for another largely defeated and lost control of the nation, had an enormous impact on the civilian population. month until we found another place. Luckily, the conflict and armed attacks are still common. The It resulted in massive displacement and an exodus bad times passed and then the good times came. of refugees to Iran and Pakistan which peaked in Taliban are still active and are a threat in the eastern and southern part of the country. 1990 with the displacement of 6.2 million Afghanis. Life in Peshawar had good and bad points. It was This conflict also resulted in over 1 million civilian Reference good that I was with my family and that if anything deaths by its conclusion in 1989. Human Security Project Report: Afghanistan Conflict Report happened we could face it together. It was hard to <www.conflictmonitors.org/countries/afghanistan/about-the- be in a new country, trying to find employment, conflict/conflict-history>. Accessed May 2013. worrying about being on the street with no food. But I was able to make friends there, some were Pakistani and others were Afghans like me. 97 After moving to Pakistan, my mother earned a Taliban came. The living as a seamstress and worked with a group of mountains and the land other women. First, she had to learn how to sew were very beautiful. and then got work sewing. She was able to do it at After the Taliban came, home. women were not allowed to leave their homes. If a Pakistan was kind of scary, especially for women. woman wanted to go out My mother wanted us children to go to school and for anything, for come directly home. As I was only 12 years old example, shopping, she when we moved to Pakistan, I wasn’t allowed to must be accompanied at work. It was difficult to find housing in Peshawar all times by a man to the market. Women had to © Zalmaï/UNHCR/APERTURE 2003. August 2008. A school in Kabul: “In many classrooms because my mother didn’t have a husband. the age difference among students may be ten years or more, a legacy of the six years of be completely covered in education lost during the Taliban regime.” <www.flickr.com/photos/unhcr/2753175578/>.