From Kabul to Cork: ‘The Taliban said they would kill us if they ever find us’

A former human rights worker with the Afghan Women’s Network in Kabul, Hamed Naderi, believes he is a prime target for the Taliban.

The work previously done by his wife, Samira, who taught biology and maths to girls at a secondary school in the city, is also anathema to the militants now running the country. What’s more, the couple – a love match rather than an arranged marriage – are of mixed ethnicity, another problem for the fundamentalist group.

Since the Taliban entered Kabul four months ago and took over Afghanistan, life for the Naderis has been a nightmare. They have gone into hiding and are banking on a Co Cork-based friend, and sometime activist, to help get them out.

Joya Kuin is trying to secure visas or visa waivers so the family can move to Co Cork, where friends of hers, Nicki Ffrench Davis and her husband, are offering the Naderis accommodation.

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Hamed says their 18-month-old son, Zahid, was unwell recently but they were unable to take him to a doctor for fear of being seen by the Taliban. Samira goes out in a burka when the family needs essentials, but other than that they stay holed up in what they hope is a safe house in an undisclosed part of Afghanistan.

“For caution, we changed [house] three times,” Hamed says, adding that the Taliban’s “intelligence is very strong”.

‘Punished’

Within days of the family fleeing the home they shared with Hamed’s father, the Taliban came to visit. “My father told them that we left Afghanistan but they punished my father and said they know we are in Afghanistan,” he said. “They accused us of being traitors to Afghanistan and working against them and against God’s will. They said they will kill us if they ever find us.”

The Naderis say they have no hope or future in Afghanistan and they hope to join the 510 Afghan citizens granted permission to travel to Ireland as part of the Irish Refugee Protection Programme.

Kuin got to know the Naderis in 2016, around the time that waves of refugees were coming into Europe. She raised money for different grassroots organisations in Greece. Some of the money went to projects like the Afghan Women’s Network, where Hamed worked.

“I stayed in touch over Facebook,” she says. “I always wanted to visit them in Afghanistan. That didn’t happen. I just want to do anything I can to try and get them out of the country.”

Having sent details about the Naderis’ situation to Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, Kuin is hopeful of a positive outcome. “The Naderis tick all the boxes and not only that, but we also have accommodation for them so they won’t have to go to a direct provision centre.”

Another Afghan family, that of midwife and women’s rights advocate Nooria Faizi, now find themselves in Ballinora, Co Cork. Nooria, her husband Arif, who has worked alongside US special forces in Afghanistan, and their three young sons say they had to flee Kabul because of Taliban death threats.

Nooria insisted on bringing her pressure cooker with her and was using it to make rice, lamb and aubergines for her family when visited by The Irish Times.

Plight

Colm Brosnan, a retired widower in his early 70s, heard about the family’s plight through a contact and decided to open his five-bedroom rural home to them for a year while they get settled.

He is reticent when talking about his kind act, but says he was moved by the thought of this family having had to “lock and leave” their home.

Using fake IDs, the Faizis crossed the border into Pakistan but were then held overnight by the Taliban. Their youngest son, seven-year-old Emram, was woken by border guards while the family slept. He was interrogated and managed to relay the family’s cover story. Today, he clings to his mother, looking bewildered at the strangers in their kitchen.

The Faizis eventually flew into Dublin, quarantined in a reception centre in Waterford and reached their temporary home in Co Cork early this month.

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran helped them secure a visa waiver and they can apply for citizenship after about two years.

“I would like to work for the Irish health system when my English improves,” says Nooria through a translator. She also has “big hopes” for her sons.

Emram and Arafat have been accepted into Ballinora National School and Abas is to attend Bishopstown Community School. “We want them to be educated so that they’ll stand on their own feet,” Nooria says.

Asked how he feels about starting school in Ireland, Abas is positive: “It is very good for me. The future is good here.”