Reality Bites: Samira watching Far from Home | Photo: Ankita M. Kumar Reality Bites: Samira watching Far from Home | Photo: Ankita M. Kumar

“I may not agree with all or even most of the tribal traditions, but it seems to me that, out therecgebet, people live more authentic lives. They have a sturdiness about them. A refreshing humility. Hospitality too. And resilience. A sense of pride.

Is that the right word, Suleiman? Pride?”

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These lines from Khaled Hosseini’s novel, And The Mountains Echoed, describes people from the countryside of Afghanistan. This statement came to life for me in 2022, when I first started shooting a documentary on the Afghan refugee community in New Delhi. The documentary, Far from Home, opened last March at the American Documentary and Animation Festival in Palm Springs, California. The Afghan people’s inherent sense of pride stayed with me throughout the shoot of the film and beyond. One of the subjects I interviewed lived in a two-bedroom apartment—far from the image one would expect of a typical refugee family in India. “I want my kids to live their best life,” she told me.

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The Afghans consider themselves displaced, but not exiled. For them, leaving Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries made sense as it would lead to a better life. In Far from Home, the main subject, Samira, keeps iterating the same sentiment throughout the film, of wanting to get out of India for a better future for her sons. Unfortunately, for the Afghans in India, this may be a pipe dream.

Over the past year, Far from Home has been selected for eight film festivals. Most people who watched the film had little or no idea about the Afghan community in Delhi. Many didn’t even know that they existed. Some people took offence to my criticism of the Narendra Modi government’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which makes it impossible for Afghan refugees to assimilate. And practically no one had an idea about the processes of the UNHCR to deprioritise Afghans who came to India by plane versus Afghans who escaped by foot to Pakistan or Iran. At a screening in San Francisco, an Afghan refugee pleaded to the audience during the Q&A to not forget Afghanistan just because it now has a stable government. But it seems like the world has moved on to more important things. There is an active war raging in two continents, which gets more media coverage than Afghanistan. It breaks my heart because the less we talk about Afghanistan, the more we doom the Afghans to their fate.

In the US, the people have more or less forgotten about the images of the man hanging from a plane when the US was exiting Afghanistan. In India, we talk more about refugees from the Rohingya or Bangladeshi communities. It’s like Afghanistan is only in the news when we want it to be. But it shouldn’t be that way. Afghans continue to grapple with the possibility of never being able to return to their home country. Syrians have slowly started going back to their country after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but Afghans are well aware of the reality in their home country. If they go back, their girls won’t get an education. Women can’t even go to a beauty parlour. Young boys will eventually get brainwashed and join the Taliban. This is a reality every Afghan has to live with for the rest of their lives.

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On January 4, after months of planning, Samira and her family finally watched Far from Home. But a film can only do so much for the community. Samira’s problems are never-ending. Her sons are no longer employed. They can’t get an Aadhaar card as they don’t have a stay visa. They can’t open a bank account. To get employment one needs a bank account that can be opened with an Indian ID. She’s running around in circles. Added to this is the stress of health problems. Many Afghans in the community suffer from health problems arising from tension and depression. Many problems go undiagnosed for years. There are little to no agencies to support refugees when they face an extreme crisis like unemployment or disease. Non-profit organisations like the Socio-Legal Information Centre (SLIC) are overburdened. This is a system that has been failing for years, but no government is bothered to fix it.

When we talk about war, we only think about communities that are suffering from an ongoing war. But war isn’t just a scenario of the present. There are historical wars that have displaced people and created monsters like the Taliban that continue to make the country unliveable. Afghanistan is an example where people continue to reel from the impacts of war. For the Afghans, their everyday reality is a battle with the Taliban. The least we can do is be considerate towards them and make India a hospitable country for them as long as they are here.

(Views expressed are personal)

Ankita M. Kumar is a journalist and a documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco, California

(This appeared in the print as 'Far From Home')

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