Deportation and unemployment haunt former Afghan military women in Iran
Maryam fled to Iran in February 2022 due to security threats from the Taliban. Since then, the 30-year-old former employee of Afghanistan’s security forces has endured numerous hardships as a refugee. Maryam says she has yet to find a job and faces severe financial difficulties.
Her living conditions worsen by the day. Her brother works as a street vendor, and the family relies on his meager income to survive. “In Afghanistan, I was deprived of work and under threat. My brothers were in school there, but in Iran, they’ve been forced to work on the streets,” she explains.
She left Afghanistan because of her fear of Taliban reprisals. Maryam recounts that in January 2022, while still in Afghanistan, Taliban intelligence repeatedly summoned her to their headquarters. She refused to surrender herself. Within a week of those phone calls, Taliban forces raided her home in a northern province. “It was evening when four armed men arrived in a vehicle. We were all home. They knocked on the door, and my brother opened it. Without permission, they entered the yard. They demanded that I go with them. They tried to take me by force and assaulted me,” she recounts to Zan Times. That night, after much pleading, the Taliban agreed to take her brother instead. “My brother is still in prison, but I managed to escape,” says Maryam.
Now, the threat of forced deportation from Iran makes her life unbearable. Reports indicate that the Taliban have interrogated, imprisoned, or even killed former Afghan military personnel who returned to Afghanistan from Iran.
Zan Times has previously reported on the dire conditions faced by female military personnel in Afghanistan. According to Human Rights Watch, the Taliban have threatened the lives of women who served as police officers in the previous government. A 26-page report, “Double betrayal: Abuse of Afghan women in police forces, past and present,” highlights how Taliban threats have forced many of these women into hiding. The report also notes that many of these women fled to neighbouring countries, where their problems persist due to issues such as lack of legal residency, unemployment, and the fear of deportation.
Maryam and her brothers live in Iran without official residency documents and fear for their lives every day they leave home. She says that Iranian authorities have recently increased pressure on Afghan migrants, and she dreads the possibility of being sent back to Afghanistan.
In addition to government actions, Maryam describes the hostile social environment in Iran: “They don’t see us as migrants or grant us the rights of refugees. Our psychological and financial problems increase every day. I don’t know how much longer we can live with all these difficulties.”
Another former defence official who lives in fear in Iran is Zahra, a 25-year-old officer who worked for four years in Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence. Now, Zahra and her husband live in Iran where they both work in a jewellery box-making workshop. Their combined income barely covers their monthly expenses. “We are not in a good economic situation. Life in Iran gets harder every day. The future is uncertain, and rent is very expensive. To rent a house, we must pay a large deposit in advance. Without it, finding a home is impossible,” she explains.
In the past year, 1.6 million Afghans have been deported from Iran. According to a BBC Persian report published on November 14, 2024, the Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation stated that nearly 150,000 Afghans returned to Afghanistan last month alone. Most were either deported from Iran or voluntarily returned. Thousands of former security personnel and other vulnerable individuals at risk of Taliban persecution are believed to be among those expelled from Iran in the past year.
Previously, the Committee for the Protection of Former Afghan Military Personnel reported that Iran’s government has been registering former Afghan military members who sought refuge in the country. Given the improving relations between Iran and the Taliban, there is concern that some of these individuals may be deported and handed over to the Taliban. Even Afghans with residency permits have been deported in recent months, Zahra states, noting that the treatment of Afghans in Iran has worsened: “Iranians say, ‘You’ve come to Iran, taken jobs from our youth, and driven up housing rents. Go back to your country.’”
Somaya, 39, a former employee of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense, fled to Iran in the fall of 2023 due to Taliban threats. Having served for seven years in various roles at the Defence Ministry in Kabul, including as a service officer in Khost province, Somaya entered Iran legally by air with her parents and younger sister but lacks residency documents and is unemployed. Now married, she lives with her husband in Qom province. “Administrative jobs are not given to Afghan migrants here. My visa expired, and they won’t renew it,” Somaya explains. “We can’t return to Afghanistan because of Taliban retaliation, and here we have no opportunities for work or living. Afghan refugees face a very hard life — no residency permits, no jobs, only harassment and deportation,” she laments.
Somaya finds some solace in the fact that her husband has legal residency and can work. Many Afghan families, including Maryam’s, have no family members with legal documentation. However, Somaya says her husband’s income as a plasterer is insufficient to meet their family’s needs. She dreams of obtaining a residency permit and the right to work herself. She says she sought refuge in Iran hoping for work and legal residency but has received no meaningful support from either the Iranian government or international organizations assisting migrants. “We have not been supported by anyone — not financially or in any other way,” she says.
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees and writer. Karima Muradi is the pseudonym of a journalist from Afghanistan.