“The most important thing is to be together and safe”

“I feel good here in France, the most important thing is to be with the family and to have security”, entrusts Khadija, a young Afghan girl who arrived in France with only her whole family ten days after the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, in August 2021. His two parents, as well as six of his brothers and sisters, were able to leave Afghanistan in disaster, while there was still time. They have been refugees in France for a year.

But the family, unfortunately, is not complete in Romorantin (Loir-et-Cher)where is she care at the reception center for asylum seekers.
Khadija’s oldest sister didn’t have the chance to get on a plane when the Taliban arrived and her situation in Afghanistan worries everyone. “She has financial problems, she is not secure. We are always thinking about her. My mother says that at night sometimes she cannot sleep because of this. For this reason, I don’t always feel good,” is sorry Khadijah.

Atifa, 16, is by far the most smiling. She’s a bit of the family’s ray of sunshine, but there comes a time when she can’t contain everything she has on her heart and breaks down in tears. “I was not ready for such things 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

at franceinfo

“The only thing I can do is pray for my friends because the country is in the hands of the Taliban, insane people. I hate them!”exclaims the teenager.

To integrate, the whole family started learning French.
Atifa is the most advanced, she goes to high school in a specialized class. She doesn’t like to speak French in public, but makes an effort to tell us about her dreams: “There are many things I would like to do. Later I would like to be an artist or work in the government. I would like to work in an administration”, she says.

Her biggest dream remains that her sister can join them in France. As soon as they speak better French, all the siblings want to work, or go to university before they can, one day, perhaps find a country liberated from the Taliban.