Nadia Ghulam says that those born in countries at war do not have a name, surname or age. This is exactly the case, which was born in 1985 in an Afghanistan already occupied by Russia. Without records, the Afghan writer and activist knows he was born in Kabul and has decided to set an approximate date. June 4th. He just turned 37. Drilling with her eyes, this woman lived ten years as a man in Afghanistan, where she killed her brother with a bomb in the middle of the civil war and left him in a coma for months. 16 years in Catalonia. publication book –-Somiant la pau— and provides some reflections like darts.
What differences do you detect between this final phase of the Taliban regime and the phase you are experiencing?
-In my book to dream of peace I draw many parallels between what happened during the Taliban regime I lived in, which began in 1996, and today. At that time, the Taliban were living in a century when we were still in a civil war and had no access to them. information as we know it now. Now, they have experienced a very important change at the technology level. everyone’s one smart phone Even if they don’t know how to write their names. They have cameras and they know how to post photos and videos. This is a serious problem for the civilian population. People who have tasted some freedom are back in the cage, and it’s costing them dearly. The change is huge. They are oppressors with more experience and more tools. Everything is taxed and people are afraid. Previously, the Taliban punished women who left the house alone or uncovered. Now the system is more perverted. The Taliban do not punish women directly, but the men in their families, which greatly increases domestic violence.
-Do you think that Spain treats Ukrainian refugees the same as Afghans or other nationalities?
-There is a great suffering. Now, for example, refugees from Ukraine to Spain have many economic resources. The poor Ukrainian refugees have not yet arrived. In addition to owning their own resources, it is easier to get into university and follow their own path, confirming their degrees and working in their former job. What about Afghans, Syrians or Palestinians? Why are there first-class and second-class refugees? I’m talking about Afghanistan because that’s what I know. We have suffered from war in Afghanistan for 50 years. 50 years without education… Afghan refugees’ mental health is not good. 95% of us experience severe post-traumatic stress. We came here with the hope that human rights are guaranteed and life can be continued with dignity, but we see that in order to study you have to confirm your education, work, provide all the certificates. And to do that you have to work for years and go from office to office and you can’t because you have to eat and eventually you get some cleaning work to survive. They will continue to live, but in anger, because they will always live badly. Is it really an opportunity?
– Is it necessary to facilitate the verification processes of studies? refugees?
-I don’t want them to give us certificates. I ask them to see our talents, open the doors of universities and allow us to study the careers we want.
-What happened to your sister about it?
-My sister is a math teacher in Afghanistan but now she can’t prove it here. They gave him a cleaning course. And it’s very sad for me because I sacrificed my life here, euros for euros, to pay for my sister’s education so that she will have a slightly better life than mine. I didn’t know how to read or write until I was 16 and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to my sister.
-I see that you are angry when you see how the West is supplying weapons to Ukraine as a solution to the Russian aggression.
Unfortunately, we humans do not learn from our mistakes. They use the same method they use in my country. I was born in Russian-occupied Afghanistan. What the US and Europe did was give civilians weapons to fight the Russians. They managed to drive out the Russians, but they caused 50 years of still unsolved war in my country. Same thing they did in Ukraine. It’s like you’re arming an ant that can defend itself against an elephant. Guns are never the solution. No amount of violence can eliminate violence.
-Do you regret the media treatment of the crisis?
-Yes. Now the fashion is Ukraine, no one remembers Afghanistan anymore. It hurts because if we stop being in the media, the humanitarian aid will not come and you will continue to join the list of countries and forgotten crises. I don’t want Afghanistan to end like this. Its consequences are paid by the most vulnerable people on the planet.