By M Ghasemian for RAHANA
Image One: Outskirts of Zahedan
It is a dirt alley that sits between two famous neighborhoods on the outskirts of Zahedan. People who are familiar with such neighborhoods, know that they are home to Afghan immigrants. This is where low income families and Afghan newcomers, who have illegally crossed the border, live in dilapidated yet cheap to rent houses.
Among the residents, there is an army of Afghan children and women who live on their own. They are the wives and children of husbands and fathers who have gone out of town in search of work; or have fled for fear of being deported back to Afghanistan.
Until the return of their husbands, these women have to provide for their children. Besides poverty and economic hardships, they have to face the violence they often become victim to.
Four security forces trucks can be spotted at the entrance of the alley. They are manned with armed soldiers. Some get off the trucks and move towards the houses. Minutes later, the sound of women crying can be heard from inside the houses. Agents accompanied by soldiers are looking for Afghans, who they will then deport back to Afghanistan. They force their way in and drag the residents out. Younger children are crying. One soldier is beating a woman as he is dragging her out. A fellow soldier is beating the woman on her back with his gun.
They are taken to the parked trucks. Locals say they will be placed in a camp before being deported to Afghanistan; this way their husbands will be forced to return.
Yet the neighborhood, like many others similar to it, remains populated with a large number of Afghan children. The ongoing stream of Afghans entering Iran will only add to the number of people who in the future will have to face the same difficulties; their children will live and grow up in Iran, yet they will not have the right to go to school.

Image Two: Zahedan Outskirts, Doctors without Borders Clinic
The young man enters the clinic accompanied by 2 women and 3 children. His face and his looks are similar to Iranian Balouchis. He says he came to Iran with his parents 30 years ago, when he was one year old. At 31, he still does not have formal identification papers and lives illegally in Iran.
“I grew up in Iran but was not allowed to go to school. I consider myself more Iranian than Afghan because I have been living here since I was one year old. Now I am married and have 3 children. Since I don’t have an ID, my children don’t have one either. These days, it has become harder to find a job, because Afghans are being arrested and deported back to Afghanistan. Because I don’t have an ID, I can’t get a technical certificate and have to work as a labourer. I have been unemployed for a long time and have to do odd jobs to provide for my family”
Like their parents, the children of this generation of Afghans, will grow up in Iran without having IDs or access to education. They will live in our country but, as “Afghan kids” they will live in the margins of society and will be subjected to all kinds of discriminations and violence. Most of them have or will join the army of child laborers. Poverty and lack of official ID papers will force them to enter the black job market from a very young age.

Image Three: Peddlers Market, Shirabad, Zahedan
One is 10 years old and the other one is 8. They are selling plastic slippers and kitchenware. They are leaning back against the wall of the Health Center. At times, women, who come out of the center or are passing by, ask them for a price or buy something. Residents, Afghan or Iranian, share a common point: their poverty. Purchasing power is low, but the peddlers market is always busy.
Neither of the boys have been to school that day. They said they were Afghan immigrants but were born in Iran. The younger one goes to a traditional school which is managed by Afghans.
The two brothers work with their father at the stand. When their father goes to work on other jobs, they come to the stand together. They don’t make a lot of money but are happy they can help the family with their work.
They love to be able to go to school, but their biggest dream is to one day become a molavi; “Molavis are praised and respected by all. I want to be respected. If I am respected then my family will be respected too.”
These children will grow up and move to other cities. Most of them will become low-paid construction workers in Tehran and other large cities.

Image Four: Reform and Education Center, Tehran
He is about 18 years old. When I met him at the center, he had been there for nearly 10 months. He was sentenced to Qisas i.e. death.
He had unintentionally killed his cousin at a construction site where they both worked, when he had started to joke around with him. He said he did not intend to kill him. He did not know hitting his cousin on the head with a wooden stick would result in his death.
When we met, he had just come out of a Quran class at the center. He was hopeful that his aunt’s family would give their consent to spare him from execution. Yet, he believed that maybe this was his fate and God’s will, to die in this way.
He did not want to be himself; he would have rather been a molavi. He said molavis were praised and respected.
Final Image
This is Iran. One of the last headlines of 1388 was about the 3000 Afghans who are currently on death row in Iran.
How many among the 3000, have witnessed violence against their mothers and family members?
How many have ever been given a chance to go to school or have a decent job? How many wanted to become a molavi? How many just wished to be respected like all other human beings and molavis?
And finally, as long as Afghans are treated they way they are, should we be surprised that 3000 or even more of them are on death row?
[1] Molavi is the term used by Balouchis to refer to Sunni clerics.

share this on social networks: