Editing by Twila Bird
Photography by Garrett Gibbons
I graduated with a degree in journalism and joined the Afghan police force. I was responsible for their media. When we joined forces with NATO, I worked as a television journalist with them for four years. My duty was to shoot videos during operations with the NATO forces and also during opium raids and anti-terrorist campaigns.
I lost many of my friends during these operations. Ahmad, who worked with me, was caught by terrorists, and they tore his skin apart. They said it was because he cooperated with the government. Abolfazl was killed when he left his home to go to his point of service. Reshad was killed when he was going to his bank. Eghbal was shot in the eye when he went to Shindel Market to buy a CD and listen to music. Mir Veis, who was responsible for detecting mines for three years, was exploded by a mine and died. When I took his dead body to his house, his fiancée went mad.
These incidents all happened while we were trying to bring peace to Afghanistan, destroy narcotics, and kill terrorists. That was our responsibility and why we joined the police and received special training.
I was tired of losing my friends during war, so after four years of duty, I quit. I began working as an announcer on a local radio station, but I began getting warnings from the Taliban. They said they would kill me because I had produced media against them, so I fled to Pakistan. Then I heard they had found my family and killed my father. I could not go back. I decided to continue on my way to Iran, then Turkey, then Greece.
Now I have been here for months, and I don’t know what will happen. I am trying to seek asylum, but there are many problems and nothing is clear. They don’t give us answers.