Supporting Afghan Women and Girls on the Move

Habibeh is a 27-year-old single woman from Afghanistan, who has two children aged 4 and 8. Habibeh’s husband passed away 2 years ago. Right after the death of her husband, she received threats from her husband’s brother, who is a member of the Taliban, forcing her to marry him…

Habibeh was attacked, subjected to sexual assault and fatally injured at the time. Her brother-in-law, kidnapped her children to force her to marry him. Since she was pretending to agree to the marriage, her brother-in-law released her children and Habibeh fled first to Iran and then to Turkey. Moreover, Habibeh was also subjected to sexual assault by the smugglers and captivated by them.

In that she and her children are not registered to Turkish authorities, they do not have access to health, education and social services. Currently, they are residing in which flat’s physical conditions are not suitable to live with another single woman from Afghanistan. She is now working in a textile company. Due to the fact that the owner of the restaurant sexually harassed her, she left her previous job. Habibeh was afraid of being deported if she contacted the authorities.

She received the law consultancy regarding International Protection and has been referred to the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management for registration thanks to Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM).  In addition, she and her children were given psycho-social support. Her PSS processes, access to basic food and rights are followed by ASAM, and she lives in the province of Van.

Note: The real name of the beneficiary has been changed.

The city I lived in was not under occupation yet but the city was under heavy shelling. I witnessed the decease of my neighbor. At that moment I just thought that I was not responsible for only my life I had my children and I needed to save their lives.’…

M.G. is 37 years old Afghan doctor. He expresses how he decided to leave his beloved motherland where he was born and raised for his own survival with these words. He says he left his country where he couldn’t able to do his job with the purpose of providing for both his children’s safety and education’s continuing.

Afghan M.G. has presented an overview of his country’s condition by saying that he had been sending his children to school before the Taliban came, he had two daughters. After the arrival of the Taliban, high schools were closed and he couldn’t send his daughters to school. He added that he was following the progress of his country via news now, everything got worse, they said that schools would open 1 month later and girls would go to school, however, they didn’t let girls go to school, there was a school with 70 students, only 15 of them were able to continue to school.

While M.G. was in Afghanistan, besides being doctor he tried to make women around him conscious of the women's rights issue, he tells what he saw ‘The girls in my country are in jeopardy. Taliban takes the girls and forced them to get married. They got married to 3 girls in the region where I lived by putting guns to their heads. He emphasized that were they to continue living in Afghanistan, they couldn’t receive an education and he hopes now his children will study and have a job. ‘My children dream about being doctor and engineering.’ says M.G. and now he and his family together are making a good life and endeavor to write their stories again.

M.G. receiving the services which are a social consultancy and education consultancy from Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM), says ’I wish Afghan women and girls would able to go to school again. This is very crucial for their being alive and future hope. I wish the schools would reopen for these children. There are many women who couldn’t go away from home and district. I wish returning girls to school, women to life which they lived.’.