My Journey
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 12
Issue Numbering: 2
Section: B
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 30
Formal Sub-Theme: None.
Individual Publication Date: February 15, 2024
Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2024
Author(s): Masood Ahmad
Word Count: 1,266
Image Credits: Scott Douglas Jacobsen.
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Keywords: Afghanistan Childhood, Bachi-Bazi, Family Struggles, War and Violence, Desire for Peace, Educational Aspirations, Patriarchy, Limited Female Freedom, Taliban Fear, Migration Decision, Iran Transit, Illegal Path to Freedom, Turkish Border Journey, Smuggler’s Tactics, Survival Struggle, Bulgarian Ordeal, Police Brutality, Refugee Camp Conditions, Journey to Freedom, Humane Treatment in Austria, Asylum in Italy, Family Reunion, New Life in Europe.
My Journey
I grew up in Afghanistan, in a city a few miles from Kabul. I spend my childhood mostly at home. Only when I grew up, I understood why I was not being allowed out. There are people in Afghanistan who tend to sexually exploit boys, and this is called ’bachi-bazi’. We were living in a joint family, and we were living in my mother’s parental house. My father found it hard to find a job, and my mother was the sole earner in the family. We never had our own home, and only lived in a rented house.
I had only seen war my entire life. When children were seeing cartoons in other parts of the world, I saw bomb blasts, suicide attacks, and people getting killed, and this became a normal routine in my life. I wanted to get away from this conflict and live a peaceful life. Also, my family was both educated and open-minded, we found it hard to get along with other people. My sisters lacked freedom, and even though my parents were liberal, my uncles interfered in our family matters and curtailed my sister’s freedom. I was also afraid, if the Taliban came to power again, my sister’s life would be destroyed. I have to emphasize that the patriarchy in Afghan society is not a part of Islam, but despite it. Thus several freedoms, that exist in almost all Muslim countries, and are even encouraged by their governments, are severely limited in Afghanistan. For example, in most Arab countries more women have registered for university degrees than men. The ratio of females to males who are enrolled in university education is 108 percent in the arab world. So, for every 100 men, there are 108 women who are studying in Arab world. This ratio in Qatar is 676 percent and Tunisia in 159 percent. Compare this to Afghanistan, where only 5000 female students studied at universities in 2001. This is negligible in a population of 20 million people, which was approximately the population of Afghanistan in 2001. It is for these reasons, I decided the only way to save my sister’s life was to move them out of Afghanistan. But to move them out, I needed to get out first. Thus, I took the dangerous journey of moving out of Afghanistan.
I first took a visa for Iran and traveled to Iran. I found that even though Iran was better than Afghanistan, it was far from being a nice place for my sisters and mother to live. It was also not possible for us to stay there legally for a long time. Thus, I could not legally travel to other countries and was forced to take an illegal path to get out of that part of the world. I traveled to the Turkish border by bus and during a part of the journey, the driver put me in the luggage compartment. I felt suffocated and claustrophobic in that small space. Apart from that, there were other people stuffed in that small place.
Finally, I felt relieved after getting out near the Turkish border. We stayed there on that border traveling in fields, eating and sleeping in open fields, for a couple of days before starting our journey into Turkey. I got sick with a fever, and it was at this point the trafficker came and told us that it was time to move on. I just had one bottle of water, and I had to travel on foot to Turkey. We walked continuously to Turkey, without taking a break for about twenty-four hours. At this time, I remember falling from a mountain, getting hurt, losing my only bottle of water but had to carry on walking to freedom.
After reaching Turkey, we were put in a cow shed, then when the trafficker felt we would get sick, he put us in a room, which he locked. We were given food only once in two days. We then traveled to Bulgaria on a boat, and then we were locked in a shipping container. It was very hot and suffocating inside. I also saw families, with children who were also locked in it. People started passing out, as we found it hard to breathe in it. We were kicking the container so that it would open and we could breathe properly, but it did not open. We stayed in this torture for about nine hours. As soon as we came out in Bulgaria, we were taken to a house. That house got raided by police, who started beating people randomly and then arrested everyone. The police kept us locked in a room, again with no windows. We were only allowed to go to the toilet once or twice a day, and that is where we could drink water. After that, we did not get any food for two full days. So, we had not eaten anything for three days. We tried to ask the police for food, but they would not respond. I remember telling a police personal that I would die as I had not eaten anything for days, and he responded that he did not care, as I had come illegally.
After two days, they took us to a closed camp for refugees. After four days, we got a small piece of bread, with some vegetables. It was so small, that we people eat it in a single bite. They also refused to give any more food to us, and we had to wait till the next day for the food. We were kept in this closed camp for a week, and then we were transferred to an open camp, from where we could move out. We were allowed to go out of that open camp. We left Bulgaria, again on foot to Serbia. We traveled for days on foot, and we used to sleep in the forest and kept walking for days. I remember sleeping on a road when we came out of the forest. As it was raining, we were falling, and we had all got injured during this travel. We had no food, and we survived on any wild berries and any fruits we would get in the forest. We walked past Serbia into Hungry. We got arrested in Hungry too. We were again put in a closed camp. We were kept for a day in the closed camp, and then we were let out. We were left out and lived on the street for a few days.
We boarded a train to go to Austria from Hungary, but the train was stopped as the borders were sealed. However, we ran away and reached the borders of Austria. As soon as I entered Austria, I experienced humane treatment for the first time during this journey. I was injured, and so I was given medical treatment. The people in Austria were nice to us, some people welcomed us with flowers. Finally, we went to Italy, as I had heard it would be easier for me to bring my family there. We again lived as homeless people in Italy for a month. I had a sleeping bag, I used to sleep on the streets. I slowly got asylum in Italy, and could also manage to get my sisters and mother out of Afghanistan. Even though I suffered a lot on this journey, I think it was worth it, if I had not taken it, my sisters would be stuck in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and would have no life. Now they are happily settled in Europe as productive members of the society.
Bibliography
None
Footnotes
None
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Ahmad M. My Journey. February 2024; 12(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Ahmad, M. (2024, February 15). My Journey. In-Sight Publishing. 12(2).
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): AHMAD, M. My Journey. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 2, 2024.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Ahmad, Masood. 2024. “My Journey.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 2 (Spring). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Ahmad, M “My Journey.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 2 (February 2024).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad.
Harvard: Ahmad, M. (2024) ‘My Journey’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(2). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad>.
Harvard (Australian): Ahmad, M 2024, ‘My Journey’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Ahmad, Masood. “My Journey.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.12, no. 2, 2024, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad.
Vancouver/ICMJE: Masood A. My Journey [Internet]. 2024 Jan; 12(2). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/ahmad.
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