Με λενε Arisa, είμαι 4 ετών και γεννήθηκα στο Ιράν. Βρίσκομαι στην Ελλάδα εδώ και τρία χρόνια. Ήρθα με την οικογένειά μου όταν ήμουν πολύ μικρή. Μου αρέσει πολύ να ζωγραφίζω και να χορεύω. Επίσης, παίζω πολύ με την αδερφή μου.

Είμαι η Marziye και είμαι 48 ετών. Ήρθα από το Ιράν με την οικογένειά μου, ωστόσο η καταγωγή μου είναι από το Αφγανιστάν. Έχω τρεις γιούς και μια κόρη. Τα τελευταία δύο χρόνια ζούμε στην Ελλάδα. Μένουμε στο Κέντρο Φιλοξενίας Προσφύγων στο Σκαραμαγκά, σχεδόν ενάμιση χρόνο. Πριν έρθουμε στον Σκαραμαγκά, μέναμε κοντά στο λιμάνι του Πειραιά.
Για πολλά χρόνια, όλα τα μέλη της οικογένειάς μου εργάζονταν με ραπτομηχανές και έραβαν ρούχα για τους Αφγανούς. Έτσι, έμαθα και εγώ να ράβω. Στο Ιράν, εργαζόμουν σε μια εταιρεία, όπου έραβα ρούχα. Μου αρέσει να ράβω ρούχα για άλλους ανθρώπους, την οικογένειά μου και για μένα. Στο μέλλον, αν έχουμε τα έγγραφά μας, θα ήθελα να μείνουμε στην Ελλάδα ή να πάμε στην Γερμανία. Ευελπιστώ να ασχοληθώ πάλι με ραπτομηχανές και ρούχα, ώστε να κερδίζω και χρήματα από την εργασία αυτή. Προς το παρόν, εδώ στο Σκαραμαγκά, χρησιμοποιώ τις ραπτομηχανές που μας παρέχει μια ΜΚΟ.

In Germany I do a language course. My dream is to work here as a bus driver for the KVB, Cologne’s public transport association.

Storyteller’s name: Mohammad
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Iran
Sex: m
Age: 33

Storyteller’s name: Anonymous
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Iran
Sex: m
Age: 24

Storyteller’s name: Mohsen Haschemifan
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Iran
Sex: m
Age: 32

Svenska: Jag heter Alireza, och jag är 38 år gammal. Jag kom från Iran för två år sedan till Sverige.  Jag är gift och vi bor tillsammans i Sverige.  Vi gifte oss i Iran. I Iran arbetade jag på en fabrik i 15 år. Just nu studerar jag svenska för att studera sedan på universitet. Min son föddes i Sverige och jag önskar honom all lycka i framtiden.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

I was known in my city, here I am a stranger, that is difficult for me. I also left my great love in Iran, we wanted to get married. I wanted to get her here, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. Today she is married to someone else. For political reasons I had to leave my homeland within three days. I grew up with my grandmother, she loves me very much, and even she didn’t know about my flight. On the last day before my escape, I told her I was going on a short trip. She is older and not quite healthy anymore. I often think of her. My great love waited for me in my agency, she cried very much when we said goodbye. Still today I see this picture before me.

I fled to Germany, like many others, in a rubber dinghy from Turkey to Greece. It was dangerous, we were many people, on a very small boat. We crossed within 15 days, 8 countries. I did not believe in ever arriving in Germany healthy. All the more I was surprised when we crossed the border from Austria to Germany. I couldn’t speak German, I didn’t know the culture, it scared me a lot. I was just a dot, in a country where I don’t yet know what I’m facing.
Uncertain, I don’t know what will happen the next morning. The beginning was very difficult, I was weak at my arrival. In my homeland, I have always been strong. I always wanted to climb higher and higher until I fell. That made me very weak. I wanted to become stronger, now I was weak. I am a refugee, a foreigner nobody knows. I never experienced racism, but inside I know that I am a foreigner. I am not like someone who was born here. I have to integrate, it’s not that easy. It costs a lot of energy. I am still young, but in my homeland I have already achieved a lot. Now I’m starting from the bottom, it’s hard for me. I am not saying that it would be too late. I know a man at the age of 70 years, he is in a German course.

Nevertheless, our life is limited and we do not live a thousand years. I am in a language course, last week I had my B2 exam. My wish is to be strong again, to climb again, that is my dream. Maybe not my own agency, but something in that direction. I constantly have new ideas that I would like to implement, the only obstacle is the language. I can’t express myself. I think it will take a few years to speak good German. In my home country I was very eloquent, I worked in marketing. Here, I feel like I’m at the language level of a child.
I would like to learn many languages. I would also like to study again, but I think it is already too late for that. Maybe I can’t live the same dream as in Iran, but maybe something unexpected happens. I never give up. That always comes suddenly in life. I am grateful to be here, I was helped a lot. I would like to live in peace with the people in Germany.

There was an incident on New Year’s Eve 2016 in Cologne. I was already three months in Germany. I drove to the cathedral, on New Year’s Eve. Many foreigners and refugees were there, many who caused problems. In the next weeks the events came in the media. It makes me very sad because not all refugees are the same and not all Germans are the same. This incident gave the Germans a bad impression of the refugees. If someone calls me a refugee, I think it’s okay, I’m a refugee too. It depends on the way he says it.

I always thought, all people are equal in Germany, slowly I notice, they are not all equal. Maybe it is in the law, but not in the behavior of the people. I am not saying that this problem only exists in Germany, it is in the nature of mankind. It is not racism, it simply lies in the nature of man. Life here is very difficult for me, I am under a lot of pressure. I left everything and have to start a new life here. My application for asylum has been rejected and I have to apply for it again. I am unsure, I do not know what will come tomorrow. I have an apartment, I have worked, I attend a German course, but I do not know whether I can stay. In Germany, I feel like in a foreign home.

Storyteller’s name: Midyan
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Iran
Sex: m
Age: 32

Svenska: Jag heter Shiva och kom nyligen till Sverige. Jag kommer från Iran. Jag har ritat en bild, hur det är överallt i världen och hur Iran delar på befolkningen, män för sig själv och kvinnor för sig själv.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

Svenska: Mitt namn är Jupiter och kommer från Iran, jag har bott 3 år i Sverige. Jag har ritat två sidor av livet. Man önskar sig det livet till höger men får det till vänster.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

I had problems because of religious and political reasons. I studied in Iran and wanted to work in the university, they told me that they could not give me a job as a Sunnite Kurd. Only Persians, Shiites got a job. I studied entomology for three years, after that I wanted to do research or something in the field of entomology. With me was a person studying, he studied something completely different, in the last semester he then joined. His father was also an entomologist. He got a job after his studies, although he only studied for a year. I studied for three years and got no job. He was Iranian, Shiite. I was Kurd and Sunnite.

In Iran, nothing worked without connections. My work depended on one person signing it, he asked me everything except what I learned. When he discovered that I was a Sunnite and my grandfather was with the Peschmerga, a Kurdish freedom movement, he accused me of it. I had nothing to do with it, my grandfather just wanted to protect his family. I never got an answer from him. The interview took place shortly before I graduated, I dropped out of university, I wouldn’t get a job anyway. They took away my hope.

I had to leave Iran for political and religious reasons. I was in mortal danger. In 2015, I fled to Turkey. After six days I took the rubber dinghy to Greece. We were seventy people in the boat, it was not longer than 8m and not wider than 3m. There were children in the boat with us, they had to squeeze between the passengers. Three hours we drove on the water. They cried, I could not stand to see it and took two children on my lap. I played with them until we arrived in Greece.

We had to wait more than thirty days at the Greek-Macedonian border because the border was opened only to Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis. At some point we got lucky and crossed the border. In Macedonia we were given a document with which we went to Serbia. We were driving a cattle truck, it was terrible. In Serbia we got another document, we waited for the train.  We drove again with a cattle car to Croatia, it was a very long drive. We’ve been standing all the way. I could bear to see the women and the elderly without being able to help them. I could barely stand it.

The journey from Croatia to Austria was already better. The cops were nicer and the Trains were real trains. No cattle trucks. We arrived in Austria, where we waited three hours. We got waiting numbers and when we were called they asked us where we wanted to go. I wanted to go to Sweden. We got on a bus, policemen stopped us at the German border. They took us into a building. We were stripped, checked and examined. It wasn’t that bad. After two days they gave us the address of a home. We went to the home.

We arrived at the home and handed in a document. At the home they asked us if we wanted to stay in Germany. Me and my friend said we wanted to go to Switzerland and Sweden. They told us if we don’t want to stay, they can’t host us. It was the middle of the night, in winter, it was very cold. We asked him what we could do, he told us it was our problem. We were only allowed to stay if we wanted to stay in Germany.

We went to a stop, we stayed there for half an hour until we were sent away by security guards. We had to go out into the cold again. We stayed outside and waited until the first train arrived. We could neither sit nor sleep, we were tired and could do nothing. It was snowing.

The first train arrived, we drove to Munich Central Station. I called my uncle and told him I was in Germany. I told him that I couldn’t do anything, that it was very cold and if it stays that way, I’d rather kill myself. I was exhausted and reached my limits. My uncle called a friend from Munich to call me and pick me up at the station. He called me, I waited six hours at the station until he picked me up. He came and we went to his house. I stayed there for a few days.  My cousin was also on his way to Germany, after I was in Munich for four days, he called me and told me he had arrived.

He was really lucky, he came to a nice home in Hamburg. I arranged to meet him in Hamburg the next day. I went to Hamburg and we met there. We bought a ticket to Denmark. My uncle ordered it for us on the Internet, we should have printed it out, but we didn’t know that. We were checked on the train to Denmark. I showed the inspectors the barcode, he told me it wasn’t enough. The police came and took us to the station. We’ve been controlled.

My cousin was taken back to the home, I had to go back to Munich. I paid for the trip myself from my last 40 €. I waited seven hours for the train, it was terrible. Once again I had to wait. I said I was going back to Iran, I lacked the strength for more burdens. I was very tired. I’d get in big trouble in Iran, I’d put up with that. I had black fingernails, I was angry because I couldn’t understand why it went like that, I was angry because I lacked the language to speak.

I called my uncle, he told me to get my cousin, he would send money again so we could go to Denmark. After two hours, I saw a dark-haired man at the station. I approached him and it turned out that he was also a Kurd. He listened to my story, he had a boat ticket that would take me all the way to Denmark. Without problems, without control. It was like a dream for me. When I called my uncle again, he told me I could drive. But I couldn’t. My cousin was young and he needed me. I told the Kurd that unfortunately I could not go.

He told me that he was driving to Hamburg and that I was welcome to come with him, so I did. The trip took about three hours when I arrived I called my uncle. He told me he had a friend in Düsseldorf I could go to. I had no more money for a ticket, I had to dodge paying the fare. On the way I was checked and had to get out. After an hour another train came, I got in. This time again I was checked, I got a note and was allowed to remain seated. A friend of my uncle’s picked me up in Düsseldorf. I called my cousin at his house.

He was fine where he was. He had his own room. I told him to come to Düsseldorf if he wanted and that I would not go to Sweden but stay in Germany. I had no more strength to travel. He wanted to stay with me, too. After three days he came to Düsseldorf. One night before we wanted to register in a camp, I woke up to have a drink. I became very dizzy and fell on the ground. I got unconscious, when I woke up I couldn’t feel my arm. I thought it was fractured. After a while I was fine again, but the pain made me unable to sleep. When my cousin and my uncle’s friend saw me like this, they called the ambulance. They checked me at the hospital, they told me I had nothing.

We registered at camp, I took strong painkillers. It got better at some point. We stayed two months in the camp, then we came to Cologne Ostheim to a camp. It was just carnival in Cologne, we had never seen anything like it before. We went to the main station to see the people. After ten minutes we were stopped by police officers. We had to stand against a wall while they checked our papers. We were ashamed and looked only at the floor. I felt like a terrorist. My papers were fine, but my cousin had a problem. I didn’t understand, so I called an Iranian doctor who translated on the phone. He solved the problem. Until today I don’t know exactly what it was After this incident, we never left the camp any more. After ten days we calmed down and understood that the police only wanted to protect our country. After one year I received a letter from the BAMF, I was allowed to register for a German course. A short time later I was also invited to the hearing. At the hearing, they ask me questions. We were fifty people waiting for their hearing. The next day they all got their identity card with the stay for six months. Not me. I was supposed to come back for two weeks. When I did, they told me to be back in a week. This time I finally got the stay.

I went to the German class and soon had my second interview. Again I told my story, the reason for my escape and everything that happened. I got stay for three years. Now I live here and everything is normal. I would like to take the B2 language course, then continue to the C1 language course and then I would like to do an apprenticeship. I don’t have time to study. It’s not just about me, I think about my family, I’m the oldest and I have to take care of them. I’m in charge of my family.

In Iran, my dream was to study medicine, but I couldn’t because of my background and religion. I also lacked the money, because with what I earned, I had to help my father. I don’t dream for myself, my big dream is to help other people and do something good for them. I may not offer much, but if I only help someone who has no legs to walk, it’s a big deal. My wishes, I don’t want anything for myself, I want to help people. It’s my big dream that I do something for other people.

I always did everything for others, I studied for my family, worked for my family. I just want to help people. I wish that there are more people who want to help, I wish that we hold together, because one hand alone cannot clap. Only together we can do it. “We” means all of us. When I told my story, I felt my way back into that time. I could tell a lot more for the people, but it would take more time.  In Iran, a big problem is that we cannot speak, we are not allowed to speak our minds, we have to share our ideas and our thinking with other people. We need this. It is also my wish that all children have the same chances.

Storyteller’s name:  Zinar Rojhilat
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Iran
Sex: m
Age: 23