Lima and Hanif

Authors

TSOS

Files

Contributing Organization

TSOS

Home Country

Afghanistan

Description

In Afghanistan, Lima worked as a teacher, and her husband worked (and continues to work) for the government as an agricultural manager. She has a fourteen-year-old son who is deaf and has related speech problems; he could not be treated for them properly in Afghanistan. Because her uncle was very wealthy, Lima received daily threats that her son would be kidnapped and held for ransom. Her uncle went to Germany with his own children and her son to protect them from the kidnapping threats.

Although Lima’s son was safer in Germany, she still faced threats because of her work as a teacher. The Taliban believed that women should not be educated, work in an institute, or have strange men see them. They used a grenade near her house, giving her a warning because she was a woman and a teacher. They also poisoned the water of her school several times. They usually attacked at night. Lima has been in a refugee camp for four months. She stays in contact with her husband who remains in Afghanistan. His life is in danger there because his job as an agricultural manager requires that he travel to unsafe places to inspect gardens, farms, and livestock. Lima currently takes care of her brother because her mother passed away from liver cancer, and her father’s second wife doesn’t treat her brother well. She worries about her son in Germany. He received a hearing aid, and his condition s improving, but he needs surgery. He would like to have his mother or father with him during the operation. She needs a certificate to be reunited with her son and wants to see him as soon as possible. She is doing her best to keep going

Document Type

Interview

Interview Date

6-30-2016

Interview Location

Greece