Escaping persecution, imprisonment and imminent death from one’s own country is a horrifying reality facing Afghan women. For some, escaping to Pakistan was a shot at a second chance at life.
For five young women, their second chance is about to be extinguished after October 30. The Pakistani government is demanding they leave the country before the end of the month. If they don’t, they will be arrested and returned to Afghanistan where they will face violence, persecution and imprisonment.
Four retired teachers in Australia are working to make sure these women are not deported back to the dangers of their home country.
Based in Adelaide and Canberra, these teachers include Anita Patel, Annette Sharma and Jane Dixon, who are working day and night to help the women prepare humanitarian visas with the aid of an immigration lawyer.
Having now obtained UNHCR refugee status, the Afghan women have been told that Australia is the mandate country — which means that our politicians should be doing everything they can to grant them visas that will ensure their safety.
The teachers are all volunteers for Virtual School Australia (VSA) — an online learning platform that began in 2016 when Swinburne Online lecturer, Paramita Roy recognised and acted upon the immense power and potential of online learning. Roy’s foresight was confirmed four years later when COVID hit.
The free online education program is designed to improve students’ English, science, technology, engineering, arts and maths skills, enabling students from across the world to pursue a broader range of employment and other life opportunities.
“The teachers involved spend a lot of time to make lessons interesting for these students,” Roy said. “They have so much knowledge and compassion.”
“The girls are so grateful to the teachers, because they realise that it’s such a nice thing that someone cares for you when the world is just looking away. These girls are full of gratitude.”
A few months ago, the teachers began delivering empathy-driven curriculum for Afghan girls living in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The girls were always focused, punctual, “doing the work so diligently,” according to Roy.
Roy recalled explaining to the students upfront that VSA wasn’t in a position to bring them to study physically in Australia.
“Right at the beginning of these lessons, we made it very clear to the girls that our capacity as educators is very limited,” Roy recounted. “We cannot bring students here to Australia.”
A few weeks ago however, the teachers noticed that the Afghan girls in Peshawar and Islamabad were growing increasingly distressed.
Their visas in Pakistan were being repealed.
“You can imagine how stressful it is for these girls because they’ve fled their country because of the Taliban regime and the work they did,” Roy shared. “They’re very brave. They took the risk to escape them and now they will be returned to the same situation.”
While Roy attempted to organise a safe house for the women in Pakistan, the effort was unsuccessful.
That’s when the teachers of VSA turned to our politicians for assistance, writing letters of appeal to Senator Katy Gallagher (Minister for Women), Senator Penny Wong (Foreign Minister), Senator Deborah O’Neill (Labor Senator), Senator Barbara Pocock (Greens Senator for SA), Senator Don Farrell (Trade Minister), Senator Marielle Smith (Labor Senator) and WA Senator Fatima Payman — former Secretary of the Multicultural Labor Branch and Afghani-Australian.
Roy told Women’s Agenda that while some of the offices have responded with guidance, no concrete resolution or support has come about. The teachers are continuing to push for more assistance.
The process of preparing humanitarian visas has been strained by multiple factors — many of the women don’t have the means of accessing the internet, and the visa requires them to sign their application.
“But they don’t have access to the software to do this,” Roy said.
The applications must be faultless in order to be accepted. A single, small error can mean their applications are refused.
There are other issues too; language barriers (the forms are in English) and a lack of tech literacy.
“The technology is something they’re struggling with,” Roy added.
The volunteers have been working tirelessly to make sure the young women are completing their applications correctly.
“I stayed up all night to make sure they are correct,” Roy explained. “If there are even just some errors, they will be refused.”
It’s a horrifying reality facing the women — some of whom escaped violent husbands back in Afghanistan, or are desperate to escape persecution and imprisonment for working with foreigners (ie. non-Muslims).
One woman, who worked on projects focusing on girls’ education and for the socio-economic empowerment of extremely poor women, said she fears for her life.
“If I am sent back to Kabul, I will be punished brutally,” she said in a personal statement, which has been forwarded to the politicians.
The woman, who is from the Hazara and Shia minority, is aware that as a young unmarried woman and her past work activities, her life back in Afghanistan will be one that endures “severe penalties and punishment.”
“If I am deported to Afghanistan I will be in great danger. The possibility of either imprisonment, torture, rape, becoming a sex slave or execution is very high. It is clear I have no hope of staying alive.”
Another woman fled to Pakistan when the Taliban took over in August 2021. Since then, her father has passed away, and she is now the sole carer for her mother and three young siblings.
Working for the UN-Habitat USAID office and Islamic Relief Worldwide office as a surveyor posed great risks for her and her family.
She is also a Tajik — Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native who reside across Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
“Tajik are persecuted in Afghanistan and can’t get jobs,” she said in a personal statement. “Before we left, my brothers were beaten up by the Taliban because they are Tajik. They were selling juice on the road and Taliban men asked them why, when they answered in our language, the men beat them.”
“The Pakistani police harass us to leave and go back to Afghanistan by the end of the month. Last week, the owner of the house and the police came to our house and gave us a notice to vacate the house before the end of October and return to our country. We can’t go to Afghanistan again because we ran away from the Taliban. We will be killed or imprisoned.”
One of the women is heavily pregnant and due to give birth in the next few weeks. She has been denied admission into Pakistan’s government hospitals because she is a refugee.
“At this time I am very concerned about the health conditions of myself and of my baby,” she said.
As the October 30 deadline approaches, Roy and her colleagues are boosting their efforts to gather more support from the public and public offices.
“All we can do is see if Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and other politicians can help us to get the visas for the girls,” Roy said. “Women leaders should be thinking about these girls.”
“From November 1st, the Pakistani Government will be sending these girls back to Afghanistan, so we are trying to do everything we can to help. We are asking the ministers to take some action and help us get results for these girls.”
To find out more about Roy’s fight to bring the Afghani women to safety, and the VSA, visit their website and their LinkedIn page.
The teachers have also set up a Go Fund Me page to raise money for the student who is about to give birth. Find out how to help here.