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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: TV AFGHAN FAMILY EDUCATION - Safi
HEADLINE: Afghan Refugee Family Barred From Receiving Education in Pakistan
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: (DATE & TIME)
BYLINE: Muska Safi
CONTRIBUTOR: Roshan Noorzai
DATELINE: Islamabad, Pakistan
VIDEOGRAPHER: Muska Safi
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: KEnochs; Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S):
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV __ RADIO __
TRT: 3:13
VID APPROVED BY: KE
VIDEO:
((EDITOR NOTES: Please send the edited copy to Bezhan, Nawid and Roshan))
((INTRO))
[[Fatima Amiri and her family fled Afghanistan for Pakistan two years ago because the Taliban government would not allow her and her sisters to go to school. But, she says, even in their new country, going to school is impossible. Muska Safi visited the family for this report, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.]]
((Narrator))
Fatima Amiri was finishing high school when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 and banned girls’ secondary education.
Amiri, her parents and seven siblings fled to Pakistan a few months later. They live in the Barakahu area, in the eastern suburbs of Islamabad.
Amiri says the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education in Afghanistan was bad enough, but because her family is undocumented, she can’t go to school here either.
((Fatima Amiri, Afghan Refugee (Female, Dari)))
“For the past two years, we have been living in Pakistan with an uncertain future. I wanted to be a doctor. It was my parents’ wish and my wish, but I forgot everything here.”
((NARRATOR))
Instead of going to school, Amiri works as a tailor to help her family pay the rent and buy groceries.
About 700 hundred thousand Afghans fled to Pakistan after the Taliban returned to power, according to the U.N. The regime has since imposed strict restrictions on women, including barring them from secondary and university education.
Amiri’s father, Ghulam Abbas Amiri, says that living as undocumented’ refugees in Pakistan makes it difficult for the family to send their children to school.
((Ghulam Abbas Amiri, Afghan Refugee (Male, Dari)))
“We can’t go out because of the police — so, the police don’t arrest us. UNHCR [the U.N. Refugee Agency] has given us only a token [a sheet of paper with a case number] in the past two years, and that is all. They have not done anything for us. We cannot work, go outside, or even rent a place. We live in this remote area, away from everything, like the bazaar and hospital.”
((NARRATOR))
His worry is justified. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been deported since Pakistan started forcible deportation of undocumented Afghans in November 2023.
Fatima Amiri's mother, Gul Begum Amiri, says that she is concerned not only about deportation to Afghanistan but also about her children’s future.
((Gul Begum Amiri, Afghan Refugee (Female, Dari)))
“They do not have enough food, and there is no education. These are the problems. I am very concerned about their future as it looks now to be unclear and uncertain.”
((NARRATOR))
Amiri says that she is particularly concerned about her younger siblings, who have missed two years of school.
((Fatima Amiri, Afghan Refugee ((Female, Dari)))
“My brothers and sisters are young. This is the time that they get their education, but we live in a remote area. We do not have documents. [Our] future looks bleak to me, and I do not know what is going to happen. More than for me, I am concerned for my sisters and brothers.”
((NARRATOR))
The Amiris say their only hope is to be relocated to a country where the children can receive an education.
((For Muska Safi in Islamabad, Pakistan, Bezhan Hamdard, VOA News))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Islamabad, Pakistan
BylineRoshan Noorzai
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
