Woman smuggled from Afghanistan in 1999 gets annual award
Zarmina Razai named refugee woman of the year 2006
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By Esa Lilja
Zarmina Razai was just seventeen when she had to leave home. The Taleban regime held Afghanistan in its grip, and the Razai family decided to flee the capital Kabul. The family paid money to smugglers and hoped for the best - the possibility of living in a safer place.
The harrowing trip took a month. During the journey the father of the family was killed and the mother stayed behind in Pakistan. Her older brother disappeared.
"It was terrible, I will never forget it. All the time we only ate bread and drank water. But we were also lucky. The smugglers could have taken the money and run. Instead, they brought us to Finland", Razai says.
In the autumn of 1999 Razai and her younger brother landed at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. The language was strange, and in her pocket she had a forged Dutch passport.
"We spent a night at a reception centre, and the next morning we were sent by train to Joensuu."
Joensuu, and especially nearby Kontiolahti, was to be Razai's home for several years. The young girl found herself in a difficult situation. She had to take responsibility for both her own well-being, and that of her young brother. And when, after a separation of three years, her mother and another brother finally arrived in Finland, she had to take care of them as well.
"It feels like I never really had a youth. Those years just went by as I tried to cope", Razai says.
And Razai coped quite well. She did well in school, and picked up a knowledge of the Finnish language. However, the North Karelian dialect did cause problems.
Razai completed her matriculation examination in 2003, and the following autumn she enrolled at the Helsinki Polytechnic to study to become a public health nurse.
Now the young woman is taking a year off and is working at various jobs, including that of an interpreter. She is quite linguistically gifted: in addition to Finnish, she is fluent in Russian, English, and especially her mother tongue Dari. She helps her compatriots and other immigrants who do not speak Finnish during visits to the doctor, for instance.
On Tuesday, Razai, now 24, was awarded the Finnish Refugee Council's title of Refugee Woman of the Year.
According to the panel of judges, Razai is a true survivor, and a good example to other refugee women and young refugees. Razai's advice for survival is very simple. "I told everyone that you just need to have courage and try to move forward."
Razai has visited her former home country a few times. In 2001 she was happy to see the fall of the Taleban regime. In the capital Kabul, the position of women especially has improved since then. There is more freedom. "But in the countryside the situation can be different."
Joensuu had a reputation of racism a few years back, but Razai says that she has never confronted xenophobia in Finland.
"Perhaps it is because I don't move around outside very much. I work and study.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.3.2006
ESA LILJA / Helsingin Sanomat
esa.lilja@hs.fi
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| 28.3.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 Woman smuggled from Afghanistan in 1999 gets annual award |
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