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Please read another very inspiring story from one of our living books.
Fatima is a student reporter and is participating in the living books project. She came to the Czech Republic with her family 16 years ago, from Afghanistan. Ending up in the Czech Republic was actually a coincidence.
Fatima was born in the third largest city of Afghanistan, Herat. The city is located near the border with Iran and the translation of its name means "city of Aryans". Then, as the powers of the Taliban grew stronger, Fatima and her family were forced to flee the country in 1999.
"We had a home in Herat and we didn´t choose the country. We were only here to get us out of Afghanistan. Therefore, the process of integration was very long and complicated. The most important thing was to acquire the language
Upon arrival to the Czech Republic Fatima and her family spent three and a half years in various refugee camps, and were given permanent residence. Of course in the camps they were not alone:
"When we arrived, we were in the camp along with 18 other families from Afghanistan, which was significantly higher than it was last year. The arrival in the first camp also brought a notable anecdote. In the Persian culture the date of birth is not very important and, for example, my grandmother still does not know when she was exactly born. In addition, Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar, according to which it is currently the year 1395. Indeed, I was born in 1372 and when we mentioned it at the camp, they could not properly convert the date. Based on the estimation of my age I was placed into sixth grade, although I properly should go to a third grade.
In elementary school Fatima experienced positive and negative reactions:
Some kids kept telling me I'm a Roma. In Afghanistan there is no such thing, so I did not know what it means to be Roma. Now I know what that means, so I would not mind, but then I perceived it as something terrible. I was dirty, ugly, and stupid? After being bullied for a while, I wanted to prove that I was not what they said about me and in the end I finished eighth grade with honors, just two years after our arrival in the Czech Republic. "
In Czech Republic Fatima was missing several things. Of course the first thing was family.
"I miss family cohesion very much. In Afghanistan, keeping families together is more important than here. I cannot understand how people can argue about heritage. The family is the most important thing. For most of my life I have been trying to help my parents. My father lost everything he had, just to be safe. In Afghanistan, he was a teacher; here he started as a street sweeper. But he always used to say that it is not important what you do, but why you are doing it."
Fatima is one of the first books of the Amnesty International living library. When asked why and how she joined the project she responds confidently:
"It started in 2013 when I first met some people from Amnesty. I began to study a master's degree of European intellectual and cultural history at Charles University in Prague. I did my Bachelor's degree in Hradec Kralove and I told myself that I had enough of student life, and I started looking for some activity besides school. I knew Amnesty before, and I was close to their struggle for political prisoners. After I wrote them that I would like to work with them, I was invited to the summer camp, that took place in Slovakia and I met there activists and Amnesty worker. That is when I heard about this project.
Fatima has made her plans clear:
"I want to finish my current studies and study more at Charles University. Moreover, I would very much like to continue as editor of the Daily Referendum, a job that really fulfills me. "
Please help us find more people as interesting as Fatima to tell their story in the Living books library!
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