‘Freedom, happiness, opportunities’: Afghan women learn to swim, drive in Australia

SYDNEY, Aug 11 (Reuters) – At an indoor pool in a western Sydney suburb, about 20 Afghan ladies who lately reached Australia as refugees take heed to former asylum seeker Maryam Zahid as she affords them swimming lessons and talks concerning the nation’s seaside tradition.

Zahid, who arrived in Australia from Afghanistan 22 years in the past, stated her periods assist the ladies develop “an identification for themselves” and take care of the trauma of the warfare that ravaged their residence nation.

“That’s one thing that may impression psychological and emotional facets of their life … to have an identification for themselves as a human being first,” Zahid advised Reuters on the Ruth Everuss aquatic centre within the suburb of Auburn.

“We’re creating for them, recollections. Recollections of freedom, happiness, alternatives.”

A yr after the United States-led alliance’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan, tens of hundreds of Afghans have been resettled in america and Europe. Australia initially allotted 3,000 humanitarian visas for Afghans after August, 2001, and earlier this yr stated it could enable 15,000 extra refugees over the following 4 years.

Zahid’s ‘Afghan Girls on the Transfer’ programme additionally helps refugees – lots of who fled after the hardline Islamist Taliban motion swept again to energy – be taught driving and discover jobs.

She believes the ladies might not return to Afghanistan, the place the federal government has severely curtailed the rights of girls and ladies. As an illustration, ladies are banned from going to highschool.

A few of the ladies on the centre selected to not communicate in entrance of the digital camera, out of concern for the protection of household again residence.

Twenty-three-year-old Sahar Azizi, in the meantime, is taking her second driving lesson as she fastidiously navigates Sydney’s busy suburban streets.

“I made a decision to begin my research and driving … as a substitute of sitting at residence on a regular basis and occupied with the dangerous state of affairs in Afghanistan,” stated Azizi, who arrived in Australia one yr in the past together with her husband and prematurely-born child boy.

“It was very nerve-racking. So I made a decision to maneuver on … do one thing for me and obtain my desires and objectives.”

Reporting by Stefica Nicol Bikes; Writing by Renju Jose; Enhancing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

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