The Taliban forced 36-year-old Hakima Alizada to flee Afghanistan twice. The first time, she was small, she must have been ten years old and her family had fled to Pakistan, then Iran.
The flight with his daughter from Bamiyan
The second time was in August 2021, with the arrival of extremists in power by arms. ” It’s harder, as an adult said Hakima, who had to take responsibility for the exile for her and her daughter, Hamida, 18, from Bamiyan to Paris where she arrived on August 23. “I would not have chosen this life for both of us”, says this lawyer, a refugee in Montluçon since the beginning of September 2021, where mother and daughter are accompanied by the Théâtre des Ilets:
I left my job, my house, my car… I worked a lot for all that, it didn’t fall from the sky. I also left the women I defended. It was a real shock. Twenty-year-old efforts in the country were destroyed in the space of a week.
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Hakima Alizada speaks for the women of her country
She contains a sob and continues her story, so that ” we do not forget the Afghan women, that we help them by carrying their voices “. Hakima Alizada knows what she’s talking about, of course. But his journey testifies to a constant struggle to assert his freedom, in a highly patriarchal society. At home, the father decides. Later, it’s the husband.
At 16, Hakima Alizada agreed to marry. The couple then lives in Iran. Quickly expect a child. “When he was four months old, my husband decided to return to Afghanistan. In Herat. It’s a few kilometers from the Persian border.On March 8, on the occasion of Women’s Rights Day, Hakima Alizada was invited by the Montluçon court.
She resumes her studies in secret from her husband
His little sister follows another path, that of studying medicine. “I said to myself why not me?? Because Hamida’s father opposes it. Hakima persists. In the morning, she works in a sewing workshopin the afternoon, in secret, she continues her education in a private high school:
I was going home before him, to do my homework. One day I pushed the notebooks under a cupboard. They were poorly concealed. My husband fell on it. I told the truth.
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And the blows fell. By dint of arguing, she convinces him to continue his studies until the final exam. Graduated, she continues with the university, with the same reservations of the husband. “He had a lower level of education then. I was not far from independence, from having a social life separate from his. »
The beginning of her life as a lawyer, seven years ago
The idea does not pass. Eight years ago, it’s divorce. A year later, she started her activity as a lawyer, and quickly specialized in the defense of women. “I was also part of a human rights commission. Education, health, reception of refugees, prisons, she continues to speak, in the press, on the radio, on television, despite adversity:
I was not directly threatened by the Taliban, I was still known through my work. I felt threatened. And I saw the danger to my daughter
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Mother and daughter learn French
Hamida is enrolled at Paul-Constans high school in Montluçon where she is learning French. “In September, I don’t know yet what I will do. Maybe in second or first, depending on my level, ”explains the teenager.
Hakima is also learning French at the MJC in Fontbouillant. She has to master it enough to be able to continue his studies here, in law school of cours. But she is waiting for the administrative procedures with the Offi (French Office for Immigration and Integration) to be completed. It’s always too long. “People tell me to be patient. That it’s France…”, she smiles.
His life for now is here. Even if his gaze is over there:
I want to go back to Afghanistan, but without the Taliban in power. My parents still live there, my little brother too. I worry about him. He is a journalist.
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His sister, the one who is a doctor, got away with it. Two months ago, she found refuge in the United States.
They fled the Taliban regime: the new life of Javid, Farida and Roya, refugees in Montmarault (Allier)
Seher Turkmen
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