Forced Return, Uncertain Fate and Tears of Hunger; The Story of Unaccompanied Afghan Women After Expulsion from Iran

Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via aljazeera

In the migrant camp at Islam Qala, the border between Iran and Afghanistan, women stand in clouds of dust, women who no longer have any hope of returning to the country nor any way to continue their lives on the other side of the border; women who have lived for years in the margins of Iranian society.

Girls and women who have spent years in Iran working the lowest jobs, with the lowest wages and no support, enduring humiliation, trampled identities, and verbal abuse from citizens speaking their own language, now after forced expulsion, have returned to a land where nobody awaits them.

These unaccompanied women who have recently arrived in Herat speak with anxiety about their uncertain future, saying they have neither a roof to sleep under, nor bread to eat, nor hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Zarghona, a 38-year-old unaccompanied woman, has been returned to her homeland with her three children.

As sweat from the scorching heat runs down her forehead, she speaks with a sigh and sorrow:

"The Iranian government forcibly expelled us. I cried out that my husband was a soldier in the Afghan National Army and was killed before the Taliban came to power, but still they showed me no mercy. Where can I go with these three orphaned children? There is no bread and no shelter for me. Who can I ask for help? I have no one but God."

Among the hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants who have been forcibly expelled from Iran in recent months, thousands of unaccompanied women with young children can be seen who have traveled the long road alone and returned to Afghanistan with hungry children, without household belongings or basic necessities.

Shahla, one of these unaccompanied women, says she is a resident of Mazar province and lost her husband twelve years ago.

"Twenty years ago, I went to Iran with my husband. I was newly married at the time. Eight years passed, and twelve years ago, my husband was arrested by the police and severely beaten. When he came to Afghanistan, he called and said he was going to get medical treatment and would return, but the poor man passed away because he had been beaten so badly."

Shahla has now forgotten the sorrow of not having a guardian, but the pain of not having shelter surges within her. "Until recently, I used to say I have no guardian and I suffered a lot, but now that I have returned to my own country, I know that I have no shelter. This pain is greater, that I returned to my homeland with my two daughters, but I have neither a place."

In the temporary migrant camps, fear, terror, and anxiety are evident in the eyes and faces of Afghan women and girls.

Zohra, 27 years old, sitting in a corner of the temporary camp with her two children, says:

"The police arrested us and deported us from Iran, saying go back to your country. But here, no one was waiting for us. We have no home, no family to help us. I was little when my uncle gave me away in marriage at the age of 11. He told me my parents died in a car accident. My husband worked in a well and died from gas exposure during work. My uncle also threw me out. I worked as a cleaner in Iranian homes and managed to cover my living expenses."

With eyes full of tears and a voice choked by the grief and pain of uncertainty, she continues speaking and adds:

"When I was in the tobacco camp in Iran, I had no money to buy anything for my children to eat. My children would cry at night from hunger, and I could only watch them. Now maybe the government in the Afghan camp will help us, but I am afraid that I will see my children crying from hunger again."

Although the Taliban speak of efforts to address the challenges faced by migrants and of creating facilities, it is clear that after the return of this wave of Afghan migrants, there is no infrastructure in place for shelter and support, especially for unaccompanied women, who are the most marginalized of all.