My name is Farhad from Afghanistan. I was born in Kabul. At Kabul University, I studied a technical education program. Then I worked as an interpreter with Americans at an office called LBG. I was an artist too.

The one who works with immigrants and especially with Americans certainly has problems. You are being threatened and attacked. Twice I was threatened and attacked. I wrote a song that was against Taliban. It is about all the Taliban’s do, its not have anything to do with Islam and religion. Everything is completely wrong. That’s why I was attacked twice. Then I had to leave the country. I left Afghanistan and went to Sweden.

I had difficulties on the trip when I flew from Kabul to Turkey. It was not that bad, but from Turkey to Greece it was really difficult. I was not alone. All people experienced almost the same difficulties as me. One floated between life and death. The train we got to go was not sure. We met on sea waves. It was difficult with young children and women. They kept crying and then I thought everyone should die. Many Hazarah were on the train. I cried and thought that we will all die and thought why should you be so hard. Then we arrived in Greece and eventually we ended up in Bulgaria. There the police struck us for no reason. We were not told why they hit refugees. We had a lot of trouble in Bulgaria. Then we decided to move on to Sweden. We hoped Sweden would be better than the other countries.

I like the Swedish people. They are nice and kind. The state and the Migration Board made a decision and rejected my application. They have no logical reasons to say no. They think I’ll move back either to Kabul or to any other country. I am really dissatisfied with the Migration Board’s decision but I am pleased with the people. Everyone helped me, everyone is nice. The Swedish Migration Board has no logical reason. They say I have to move back, but as I said, I sang and is a famous artist and my songs are all against the Taliban. I even worked for Americans in Kabul. Therefore, I can not go back to my country. The Swedish Migration Board says that they find no new reasons for changing the decision. Swedish authorities think they know better than me about Afghanistan. Swedish diplomats are in Afghanistan and hears news and get paid 30% more in salary than diplomats working in other countries. So everyone knows that Afghanistan is not a safe country. How can it be safe for me if so? If Afghanistan had been safe I would not have come here.
Nowadays I am busy with studies. I’m done with sfi and read on basic Swedish while I study music and sing in Persian, Dari, Pashto and Indian. At the music school I study music and my teachers have helped me a lot.
Clearly, missing my parents and siblings. You think of them all the time. But you can not do anything. You can either cry, complain or think about them. Nothing more.

Svenska: Mitt namn är Farhad från Afghanistan. Jag är född i Kabul. På Kabuls universitet studerade jag färdigt en utbildning i teknisk information. Sedan jobbade jag som tolk hos amerikaner på ett kontor S K. LBG. Jag var artist också och sjöng.

Den som jobbar med invandrare och särskilt med amerikaner får helt säkert problem. Man blir hotad och attackerad. Två gånger blev jag hotad och attackerad. Jag skrev en sång som var mot talibaner. Den handlar om att allt talibanerna gör har inte något att göra med islam och religion. Allt är helt fel. Därför attackerades jag två gånger. Då blev jag tvungen att lämna landet. Jag lämnade Afghanistan och åkte mot Sverige.

Jag fick svårigheter på resan när jag flög från Kabul till Turkiet. Det var inte så jobbigt men från Turkiet till Grekland var det verkligen svårt. Jag var inte ensam. Alla människor upplevde nästan samma svårigheter som jag. Man svävade mellan liv och död. Tåget vi fick åka på var inte säkert. Vi träffade på havsvågor. Det var svårt med små barn och kvinnor. De höll på och grät och då tänkte jag att alla skulle dö. Många Hazarah var med på tåget. Jag grät och tänkte att vi kommer alla att dö och tänkte varför skall man ha det så svårt. Sedan kom vi till Grekland och så småningom hamnade vi i Bulgarien. Där slog polisen oss utan något skäl. Vi fick inte veta varför de slog flyktingar. Vi hade väldigt jobbigt i Bulgarien. Sedan bestämde vi oss för att åka vidare mot Sverige. Vi hoppades att Sverige skulle vara bättre än de andra länderna.

Jag trivs med det svenska folket. De är trevliga och snälla. Staten och migrationsverket tog beslut och avslog min ansökan. De har inga logiska skäl för att säga nej. De tycker att jag skall flytta tillbaka antingen till Kabul eller till något annat land. Jag är verkligen missnöjd med Migrationsverkets beslut men jag är belåten med folket. Alla hjälpte mig, alla är trevliga. Migrationsverket har inget logiskt skäl. De säger att jag måste flytta tillbaka, men som sagt jag sjöng och är en känd artist och mina låter är alla mot talibanerna. Jag arbetade till och med för amerikaner i Kabul. Därför kan jag inte åka tillbaka till mitt land. Migrationsverket säger att de hittar inga nya skäl för att ändra beslutet. Svenska myndigheter ser bättre än jag situationen i Afghanistan. De lyssnar på nyheter varje dag, svenska diplomater är i Afghanistan. Man hör på nyheter att svenska diplomater i Afghanistan får betalt 30% mer i lön än diplomater som jobbar i andra länder. Så alla vet att Afghanistan inte är ett säkert land. Hur kan det vara säkert för mig i så fall? Om Afghanistan hade varit säkert hade jag inte kommit hit.

Numera är jag upptagen med studier. Jag är klar med sfi och läser på grundläggande svenska medan jag läser musik och sjunger på persiska, dari, pashto och indiska. På musikhögskolan studerar jag musik och mina lärare har hjälpt mig mycket.

Så klart att man längtar efter sina föräldrar och syskon. Man tänker på dem jämt. Men man kan inte göra något. Man får antingen bara gråta, klaga eller tänka på dem. Inget mer.

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

My name is Fariba and I come from Iran.

I’ve lived here for about three years. A year and a month ago, I got a residence permit.

Our difficulties are as old as the regime in Iran. Because of these difficulties, we have to leave the country. My husband was in prison for 5 years. When he got out, he got fired from his job. We were denied human rights.

My children have experienced even more difficulties in their lives. They were threatened and harassed. It was ordinary people who hurt us, not the regime. It was also authorities such as the Basij (Police) police chief, among others. All such authorities did us badly in different ways. Our lives were threatened almost continually.

Both my husband and I had big families. We decided to escape on many occasions, but for various reasons it did’nt work. I had problems because of some books I’d written.

I was a psychologist and worked at a NGU (Non-Governmental Organization) who was involved in preventing social damage. I also worked on the County Administrative Board, where I was responsible for inspection. I also worked as a teacher and lectured.

I liked helping people in my country, but I was also interested in writing. The books I wrote were forbidden and have never been published. That’s why I was arrested. I had no opportunity to do anything. I got standing hotels from the secret police, so I had to leave the country. I had to bring my grandchild every 5 months, because his parents were divorced. My son also came with us.

The trip was very difficult. Unable to describe it. I can’t even paint it with words.

We met many bad people, so-called smugglers. They are not any nice people. We had to trust them to move on. In addition to financial problems, we also had other difficulties. It could have been a book to tell it. But one thing I’ve suffered was that we were waiting a lot for a long time to be notified of our residence permit. I had heard about EU countries that everything works well if you tell the truth. It is also said that the queue system works excellent, but it was the other way around. It hurt and you are disappointed.

The whole trip was tough. The hardest thing was that I had to choose Sweden to seek asylum and stay in a country I hardly knew anything about. When I came here I met some people who hurt me. I received the wrong information from them and I was confused. Me and my son, who was hospitalized felt bad. My grandson felt bad. That was the hardest thing.

The flight from your country is always difficult and during the flight you always experience difficulties. The sence of loosing my identity was the worst experience for me, while I was waiting for the message from the Swedish Migration Board.

Today, everything is fine with me and I’ve become a Swedish citizen. Everything is moving forward.

I only miss my family and relatives living in Iran. I believe in a cosmopolitan society. I have lost my youth and middle age there. …. Excuse me! … Everything has disappeared. The best parts of my life … Yes, we should have come here earlier. Applying for asylum is not a choice, but you have the right to seek asylum. We should have applied for asylum earlier.

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

When you emigrate

When you emigrate, you leave your roots in your home country
The foreigners sit down like a tick in your throat
and reminds you in time and time that you are a stranger
It does not matter if you are new or old in the new country
There is always something missing, some, some
Something has been lost on the way …

When you emigrate, the smallest can give you a lump in your throat
The world is becoming black for your eyes
The illusion that no human is as alone as you grab yours

As a refugee, you have many reasons to cry. Unemployment, poverty, loneliness,
As a refugee you become dumb, deaf, tame
The distance to yourself increases
You become antirasist

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 miss my city. The city reminds me of Malmö because of the sea and the forest. But there are many problems in Iran and one could not live a normal life there. If you want a better job with a better salary, you have to move to the capital. There was work but the salary was low. Life was hard.
It’s hard to explain the feeling. I never thought I’d leave my country and I miss my family. I have a good relationship with my parents. It’s very hard for me. But I am happy right now, because I will live a better life than I lived in Iran.

I started studying at home before I started at SFI. I go a lot to different language cafes to learn swedish. Now I know a little Swedish and I’ve got new friends. I like Malmö and I like cycling and here you can do it. I hope I succeeded in my life in Sweden. Malmö is a city with many cultures and traditions and we must respect and help each other.

Svenska: Jag heter Pedram och kommer från Iran.  Jag är 27 år gammal. Jag har varit i Sverige i 13 månader. Jag är gift och just nu studerar jag SFI.
I Iran bodde jag tillsammans med min familj och kompisar. Jag hade det bra för jag bodde i en liten stad. Ekonomin och arbetslösheten var inget problem. Jag hade en bra situation i Iran. Jag studerade till el-ingenjör på universitetet.

Jag saknar min stad. Staden påminner om Malmö med havet och skogen. Men det finns många problem i Iran och man kunde inte leva ett normalt liv. Om man vill ha ett bättre jobb med mer betalt, så måste man flytta till huvudstaden. Det fanns jobb men lönen var låg. Det var svårt att leva.
Det är svårt att förklara känslan när man lämnar sitt land Jag trodde aldrig att jag skulle lämna mitt land och jag saknar min familj. Jag har en bra kontakt med mina föräldrar. Det är mycket svårt för mig. Men jag är nöjd just nu, eftersom jag kommer att leva ett bättre liv än jag levde i Iran.

Jag började studera hemma innan jag började på SFI. Jag går mycket på olika språkcaféer för att lära mig svenska. Nu kan jag lite svenska och har fått nya kompisar. Jag tycker om Malmö och jag tycker om att cykla och här kan man göra det.
Jag hoppas att jag lyckats med mitt liv i Sverige. Malmö är en stad med många kulturer och traditioner och vi måste respektera och hjälpa varandra.

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 am Fateme Hussain Zade. I am from Herat, Afghanistan. I was nine years old when we left Afghanistan and came to Iran. I was married to an Iranian man and God gave me five children. At first, Iran was a very good place to stay but then, they did not keep my children at the school. They told us “You must go back to your country or stay in the camp”. In my country, the war was going on, they were fighting and they did not allow us to work legally.
So, we had to go to the camp where my children could study there. I am illiterate and this causes me distress. My children are literate for their own future and life. The camp we went to was out of the city and when we went there, we had too many problems. When we wanted to go to the Pazar or to the city, we should have our documents with us. In the hot days, we had to stay under the sun and wait in the row to get the documents. They wrote down on a paper the exact place we were going to and they also mentioned the time of going and coming back. If we were coming a little bit later, they used to close the front door and say to us “Go back to where you were at”. We did not like this situation.
Regarding the education, the teacher had not the knowledge to give lessons to the students. In Iran we wanted our children to study but we had to pay for their everyday lessons. The lessons in the camp were very different from the lessons in the city, where we used to pay.
If my husband or my son wanted to work, they had to do very difficult jobs. In Iran, we did not have the right to own a shop, to ride a bike or even to have a SIM card. A year later, when my grandson was born, my son’s wife gave birth by caesarean section but after that, she had some health problems…her skin was very sensitive. When we wanted to get her to her own doctor, they did not accept that and they said to us that we had to get her to the doctor in the camp. But, the doctor in the camp was just a medical practitioner. For her we were like ‘mice experiment’ and they were paying her for that.
One of my daughters is very fond of mathematics and we had to pay for her to attend some lessons. They said that she had to take a test in order to see her level and then they gave her a degree. She was very happy when we paid for the test. But then, they said to us that because we are Afghans, my daughter will not take the test and that we had to go back. My daughter was very sad and depressed about that.
In the camp, everything was bad and everyone, including my family, was in depression. Our house had very low walls. We were not safe there and we did not have any choice. “Either we will die here or we will leave” and we decided to leave. We can continue living here (in Iran) or go to Afghanistan and die due to the war or we can go to Europe. So, we came to Greece and we are thankful to all. Everything is very good here. The government has helped us so much, thank you. In the morning, I go outside with a happy face and I know that I am safe in Greece.
I am involved in my flowers now. I have two young grandchildren. Their parents send them to school and in the afternoon, I take care of them. My other children go to school as well. I prepare the food and I clean the house. I do this every day.

Storyteller’s name: Fatime Hussain Zade
Interviewer’s name: Anxhela Dani
Country of origin: Afghanistan
Sex: F
Age: 47

My name is Hussain Mohammadi, my father’s name is Mohammed. I am from Afghanistan, I was born in Behsud. I lived for 35-36 years in Iran and I was married in Iran.
We had many problems in Iran. We did not have freedom in Iran. We could not work either could buy any products in stores. We could not work as sellers in the street markets. We could only work on difficult jobs, such as builders in constructions, bakers and this kind of jobs. We used to work in these jobs.
In 2008, when my daughter went to school, the school director said: “We cannot accept her because your family is from Afghanistan”. That made us feel very sad and we wanted to go back to Afghanistan, but our relatives from Afghanistan stressed that the situation in Afghanistan is very dangerous, because of the war. Afghanistan was worse than Iran, people could not work because of the war. We were afraid of the war and so we stayed in Iran.
Iranians pushed us to go to the Camp ‘Ardughah’ (Afghan Refugee Camp, Saveh) they said that if you want your children to study, go to the Camp. If you do not want, you have to go back to Afghanistan. I have five children, who have to go to school, so we went to the Camp. We lived in the Camp for five years. My children had one teacher for the primary school and one for high school. Even there, we could not work, neither we could go outside the Camp. If we wanted to work outside the camp most of the people were harassing us and speaking badly about the Afghans. The police officers were swearing and talking rudely to us.
Then one day, they checked our documents and they said that have expired and we must go to the police station. They arrested us and took our money. Then, they said “Go” and kept our money. This situation was happening every time. For instance, we could not buy a bicycle, a car or even a SIM card with our name. We had all these problems, we were not free. We could not even go from Ahvaz to Teheran. We had to wait in the row for 1-2 days to take the needed documents, they were doing everything difficult for us. We had to pay for these documents, that were legal only for 10 days.
We had been living in the Camp ‘Ardughah’ (Afghan Refugee Camp, Saveh) for five years and we did nothing.
In the Camp, we had a family whose daughter had to go to the university, but she was not allowed to. Our daughter had to go to university after two years, as well. When she heard the news from the other family she was very sad. She said “I tried to study with the crazy teacher and after all I got through… I cannot go to the university? What can I do, why I tried, why I studied?” Me and my wife were very sad and angry. Thus, we took the decision to leave for Europe…

We were in Ahvaz and we went to Teheran. Then, we went to the borders where we stayed for one day and one night. From there we went to Turkey, in Istanbul, and we stayed there for 22 days. Later, we tried to come to Greece from the borders but the police caught us and they sent us back (in Istanbul). We tried again to come to Greece, but our van turned over. We were almost 50 people inside the van. My daughter hit her head and other people had their arms broken/hit. After our fifth attempt, we finally came to Greece by boat. We were lucky and some people from the Greek side came with a big ship and saved us.
They took us to Lesvos island, once more we had nothing. People there gave us clothes to wear. “Thank you for that help!” They kept us for five days, we got registered there and we took the tickets for Piraeus (port in Athens).
We stayed in Piraeus for two months. We were staying in a tend. In that place, we had food, clothes and help. However, after some time, the conditions were not any more good. We came here (in Greece) for a better future, not to be like that. We came here for a more peaceful life. Two months later, we came to Skaramagas Refugee Camp and here things were better. After three months, they gave us the documents to stay for one year and then they informed us for the interview in Piraeus. We went there and they told us to come back after six months for the second interview.
We were fine at the camp, but the situation had changed and we had some issues to deal with. The camp had not got people in charge of. Everyone was doing whatever they want. However, now we are very satisfied from the government of Greece and we are thankful. My children are being educated, they go to school. I have five children, four girls and one boy. Two of my daughters and my son are married. My son right now is in Iran and my daughters are studying and they can speak a little bit of Greek and English. In the Camp, they are giving us 140 euro per month. These are not enough but it is fine. We are still waiting for the ID card. “Peace be upon you”.

Storyteller’s name: Hussain Mohammadi
Interviewer’s name: Anxhela Dani
Country of origin: Afghanistan
Sex: M
Age: 58