Highlights
- Qamaria Sherani, her husband and their five daughters emigrated to Australia from strife-torn Afghanistan in 2021.
- She says her daughters now have free and full futures to look forward to.
- The family have quickly adapted to a new country but worry about relatives left behind.
As the first anniversary of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan approaches, humanitarian organisations are warning of deteriorating living conditions in the country, which, in addition to insecurity and instability, is suffering from the worst drought in 37 years, and a decline in the health and education systems.
says 24 million Afghans need urgent humanitarian assistance, more than half of them children.
Some 5000 Afghans have arrived in Australia since February this year on temporary humanitarian visas.
A total of 1000 Afghans were brought in on permanent residence visas in the fiscal year 2021-2022, according to Australian data.
One of them was Qamaria Sherani, who arrived in Australia with her husband and their five daughters in late 2021.
Since coming to power, the Taliban have imposed various restrictions on women and girls, despite pledging a more lenient rule than their first term in power in the 1990s.
Women were banned from holding government jobs, attending secondary education and travelling more than 72 kilometres without a male companion.
A released on July 20, 2022, said that “erosion of women's rights” has been one of the Taliban administration’s most notable features since it seized power again in August 2021.
The report highlighted the erosion as “one of the most prominent aspects of de facto management to date”.
Since 15 August, the rights of women and girls to participate fully in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life have been gradually restricted and in many cases completely abolished.
The decision not to allow girls to return to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their basic education, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
So far, the Taliban has only allowed primary-school-aged girls to attend school. Source: Xinhua News Agency
At the same time, access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been restricted because of the resolution of ad hoc reporting pathways, justice mechanisms and shelters.
Ms Sherani, who holds a law degree and is fluent in seven languages including Arabic, says she understands the importance of educational attainment and women’s access to their rights.
As a mother, as a girl, as a woman, we all have ambitions and wishes and we want to achieve them.
Ms Sherani told SBS Arabic24 that her daughters are “smart and ambitious, and as a mother I want each one to have an educated outlook, and this is very difficult or even impossible in Afghanistan now.”
(HRW) says the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 has led to tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing, and also notes the status of women, girls and their families, and says that their fear of not being able to work or study also drives them to escape the country.
Many Afghans remain at risk of being targeted because of their previous work or association with coalition forces, the former Afghan government, international development programmes, the media, civil society and other organisations promoting human rights, (HRW) adds.
Ms Sherani says her husband was one of those working to establish peace and security in Afghanistan at the grass-roots level. He had been the target of an assassination attempt, she says.
They tried to assassinate my husband by blowing up his car, but he survived, thank God.
“My husband was working at the grass-roots level to end this war and this situation in general, but, unfortunately, there are forces that do not want stability and peace for Afghanistan, so he received many threats, and they tried to kill him by putting explosives under his car, but thank God that day we had guests and my husband was late to go out and he survived,” she said.
Educational attainment was important to Ms Sherani, who studied medicine and law before the Taliban returned to power. She completed her studies despite many family and social responsibilities and should have been happy when she graduated.
The wreckage of the family car after a bomb intended for Qamaria's husband detonated. Source: Qamaria
“I started studying medicine in Pakistan for two years and then I went back to Afghanistan and after five children I started studying law for four years with much difficulty, and a week after I graduated, things changed and the Taliban came back, and I left Afghanistan,” she said.
A journey of fear and hope from Afghanistan to Australia
She says the journey from Afghanistan to Australia had been arduous and fraught with fear and anticipation, but the hope of crossing to safety was the light that illuminated the road.
"There was fear of everything, of the culture, of the language, but there was also hope and some reassurance because when my husband left the house, I was no longer afraid of a phone call telling me that he would not be returning,” Ms Sherani said.
“Now we have reached safety and our lives will be filled with happiness hopefully.”
Women's freedom in all fields is equal to that of men's, whether in education or work
Ms Sherani and her family arrived in Australia, where she hoped to find peace and happiness, so what was her first impression of this country and has that happiness come true?
“My impression is very good. The sense of hope, hospitality from the Australian government, women's freedom in all areas, equal to men's, whether education or work, and opportunities for anything. I was very happy with that and found hope,” she said.
However, changing place, customs, traditions and culture has had an impact on the first phase of settlement, Ms Sherani says, but she is doing her best to integrate into her new society, and says her five daughters are very excited and have adapted more quickly.
Qamaria speaking at a university event. Source: Qamaria
"For adults, when the whole situation changes, the culture, the language, there is what is known as ‘culture shock’, but my daughters are young and don't understand this very much, and they have a lot of excitment to get to know Australia,” Ms Sherani said.
“When we told them that we were leaving Afghanistan and going to Australia, they started researching about Australia, its weather, geography, culture and language, and when we got here, they were happy and tried to integrate, but they sometimes missed their friends and family."
Ms Sherani says she loves Australia and everything about it, but the aspect that surprised her the most was the deep quitness in the suburbs and lack of interaction between neighbours.
Neighbours do not say hello to each other. We have lived in this place for three months, and we haven’t seen any of the neighbours, we just hear cars coming and going.
Leaving a place even if it is not safe doesn’t erase nostalgia for it, memories of it and the people left by the immigrant even if the migration is forced, which is what Ms Sherani says she feels seven months after her arrival in Australia.
"Of course, we left our country and left our people and culture, like families gathering on different occasions, the same language, the same religion, it's very difficult," she said.
Qamaria's daughters before the family left for Australia in 2021. Source: Qamaria
24 million Afghans are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, more than half of them children
Humanitarian organisations paint a bleak picture of living conditions in Afghanistan almost a year after the Taliban returned to power.
According to the 24 million Afghans need urgent humanitarian assistance, more than half of them children.
Afghanistan is also still reeling from the recent earthquake and the worst drought in 37 years.
“There is a malnutrition crisis, and, in addition to diseases, it kills children there,” said Sam Mort, a UN delegate working in Afghanistan.
Afghan children are seen near debris after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook Afghanistan in June 2022. Source: Getty
How do these conditions affect the Afghans who have reached safety in Australia?
"Of course there is emotional pressure, sadness for our oppressed people facing poverty, women and girls deprived of work and education,” Ms Sherani said.
Especially being a mother-of-five, I feel for all the mothers, and I am afraid for my extended family that something will happen to them, and I would be very happy if they had the opportunity to come to Australia as well.
“In the meantime, I thank the Australian Government for all the services it has given us.”
Despite the difficulties, Ms Sherani says settling in an area inhabited by the Afghan community has alleviated the sense of missing the homeland to a certain degree.
“We chose this area even though it was difficult for us to pay for this place, because of the psychological comfort of being among other Afghans,” she said.
“We feel on occasions like Eid, for example, almost the same feeling as we did back home."
If you get to Australia, consider Australia your home and home and be happy with it, and be sure that everything you've been seeking all your life will come true.
Advice for other migrants from Afghanistan
Through her recent experience of settling in Australia, Ms Sherani has some advice for other new migrants for an easier life.
Consider Australia to be your home and home and be happy in it, and be sure that everything you have been seeking all your life will be achieved here but you need to try your best because there are many opportunities in all areas.
As a token of thanks to Australia, Ms Sherani says she and her family will not hesitate to do anything to contribute to the development and progress of this country.
“Of course, we thank the Australian State from the bottom of our hearts, my children and I thank the Australian Government for the hospitality we have found here, we have seen progress in Australia, women's freedom and equality with men, both in education and work, and we will never hesitate to participate and take our contributions to the development and progress of this Australian society,” she said.
