“I feel comfortable here in France, the most important thing is to be with my family and to have security,” admits Khadija, a young Afghan who arrived in France with her whole family just ten days after the Taliban took Kabul. in August 2021. Both his parents and six of his siblings were able to leave Afghanistan in the event of a disaster while there was still time. You have been a refugee in France for a year.
Unfortunately, in Romorantin (Loir-et-Cher), where she is cared for in the reception center for asylum seekers, the family is not complete.
Khadija’s eldest sister did not have a chance to board a plane when the Taliban arrived, and her situation in Afghanistan worries everyone. “She has financial problems, she is not secure. We always think of her. My mother says that sometimes she cannot sleep at night because of this. That’s why I’m not always well,” complains Khadija.
Atifa, 16, smiles the most by far. She’s a bit of the sunshine of the family, but eventually she can’t hold back everything that’s on her mind and bursts into tears. “I wasn’t ready for things like that to happen in my life.”
“Sometimes friends who stayed in Afghanistan call me. We talk about the last moments we spent together, for example at school, wonderful years.”
Atifa, 16-year-old Afghan refugee
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“I can only pray for my friends because the country is in the hands of the Taliban, crazy people. I hate them!” the teenager exclaims.
In order to integrate, the whole family started to learn French.
Atifa is the most advanced, in a special class in high school. She doesn’t like to speak French in public, but tries to tell us about her dreams: “There are many things I would like to do. When I grow up, I want to be an artist or work in government, work in an administration,” she said.
Her biggest dream remains that her sister can join them in France. Once they get better at French, all the siblings want to work or study before perhaps one day finding a country liberated from the Taliban.
Meeting with an Afghan refugee family in Romorantin – Report by Arthur Fradin.
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