Taking a walk in Istanbul

The whole of Europe is embroiled in a discussion on how many Syrian refugees each country should or could take in. Germany is the biggest European recipient country hosting around 100.000 Syrian refugees. In comparison: Jordan currently hosts more than 600.000 people and Lebanon almost 1.2 million people. Turkey hosts more than 1.6 million Syrian refugees. (http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php)

Istanbul is a vibrant and very impressive city. It manages to be modern and traditional at the same time transcending the notion of what is thought to be oriental or occidental. The Taksim and Sultanahment districts are swamped with tourists all year round. Taksim square and the popular shopping street Istiklal Cadessi are never found empty: During the day, shoppers flood the street – tourists with loads of shopping bags are everywhere. During the night, the beats of the clubs hammer through the walls. In short, it is a great place to be and enjoy life.

Still, it feels uneasy to stroll through Istiklal Cadessi, no matter the time. Being a tourist in Istanbul one shares the same places and squares with a countless number of Syrian children, their often very young mothers and exhausted fathers. At every corner of the street kids kneel on cardboard playing their plastic flutes. None of them seem to be much older than seven. Cans and boxes lie in front of them.

Others, as young as three or four, run through the streets after tourists. The youngest ones are just sitting on the cold floor with their mothers. The mothers, often looking like teenagers themselves, are holding tiny babies in their arms. Some of them sell water bottles, some just sit there and beg. In front of them their IDs proving that they are really from Syria. Mostly they ignore the passersby, occasionally they shout “Syria, Syria”, but that is it.

The infrastructure in Istanbul cannot handle the huge influx of refugees. Many families sleep in parks or on the streets even. Being in Istanbul in November, I already wondered how these new-born babies on the arms of their mothers would survive a winter out in the cold. Currently the temperatures in Istanbul range between 2° and 10° Celsius.

And while the geographical distance makes it easy to complain about the treatment of Syrian refugees in Turkey, Frontex is still patrolling the Mediterranean – protecting Europe from whatever it is afraid of. We are closing off our borders just like we used to: Like the Evros region between Turkey and Greece. It is an important gateway to the EU for many refugees, not only for Syrians. It is being guarded closely with the police arresting asylum seekers, who wade and swim through the shallow Evros river in order to reach Europe. They are all considered “illegal immigrants” and they are not wanted in Europe. Not from Syria nor any other war-ridden country. The refugees stranded in Istanbul are left with nowhere to go.

Click here for more pictures by Turjoy Chowdhury. 

The Malala-Phenomenon

Malala has become a very famous name in the western world, thanks to Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani human rights activist. Born in July 1997, she has already been nominated for a Nobel Peace Price. Her “career” started when she was just eleven years old, writing an anonymous blog for BBC Urdu (after Pashto her second language) about being a schoolgirl in the Pakistani Swat Valley. She grew to be one of the most inspiring activists advocating the right to education.

Malala Yousafzai speaking at the UN

Malala was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taleban in 2012. She survived the attack and escaped to the UK with her family. Since then, she caused a massive hype in western media and impressed with her public appearances, most notably her speech at the UN and a witty interview on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”.

Looking for the origin of Malala’s first name, one has to study the history of the late 19^th century Afghanistan – the time of “Malalai of Maiwand”, one of the most famous Afghan and Pashtun heroines .

During the 19^th century the British occupied Afghanistan, leading not to one, not two, but three Anglo-Afghan-Wars. In German literature this episode has become well known through Theodor Fontane’s poem “Das Trauerspiel von Afghanistan” – The tragedy of Afghanistan – which describes the disastrous British retreat from Kabul in 1842 during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

What is less known in the West, however, is the story of Malalai (or Malala) of Maiwand. She was born around 1861 in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. In 1880 it is told that both her father as well as her fiancé joined the Pashtun forces against the British in the battle of Maiwand – thought to be one of the principal battles of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Like many other women, Malalai was there to help looking after soldiers and caring for the wounded.

Without going into history too much this is how the legend goes: Although being weaker in number the tide of the battle turned in favour of the British, as the Afghan fighters started to lose their morale. Malalai saw this danger and – according to the legend – took off her veil and shouted out:

“Young love! If you do not fall in the battle of Maiwand,
By God, someone is saving you as a symbol of shame!”

Malalai of Maiwand

Apparently, this brave girl shamed the Afghan fighters so much that they started to reinforce their attacks again. Also, as one of the flag-bearers was shot by the British, Malalai took up the flag herself – the sujet of many depictions of her. Some sources also say that she made a flag out of her veil. Malalai was killed in the battle, being only around 18. Still, the Afghan forces, spurred by her words, defeated the British in the “Battle of Maiwand”.

So not surprisingly, Malala Youzoufsai’s parents chose the name for her daughter after this famous Pashtun heroine. And indeed, Malalai of Maiwand serves as namesake for a lot of women, especially in Afghanistan. Among them are several well known public figures. Two of them are portrayed here.

Some people may know Malalai Joya, who briefly sat in the Afghan Parliament, until she was kicked out because she was accused of insulting the Parliament. She surely is no fan of some of the people sitting in Parliament and the Warlords ruling the country today. Even more remarkable, she’s never been afraid to say so, shouting it right into their faces (like literally, check here).

Malalai Joya speaking in Ottawa

Of course her activism has left her exposed to a lot of physical danger. Receiving numerous death threats (some of them even from inside the Parliament), she keeps on changing her location constantly, only going out in the blue “chadri” and keeping her security guards with her all the time. In an interview the now 35-year-old says, “It really is a big problem just to be alive.” She released the book “A Woman among Warlords” – a very interesting read. And also a documentary on her life has been produced.

Malalai Joya has been criticized for the way she works from different sides, but she certainly is a very interesting person, even if you don’t agree a hundred percent on everything she’s said or done.

Another famous Malalai is Malalai Kakar. Born in 1967, she was a policewoman in Afghanistan. And not just that, she was the head of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women. Thus, she was the most high-profile policewoman in Afghanistan after 2001, in a city that certainly is not a walk in the park for any woman in the police force. When Kakar joined the police in 1982, she was following the footsteps of her father and her brothers. During the Taleban rule she was prevented from working, but went back to work after 2001.

Malalai Kakar in 2004

Her most famous episode was probably when she killed three would-be assassins in a shoot-out. Contrary to that, her everyday life was, according to herself, more about tackling theft, fights and murders. She was also mother to six kids. In 2008 Malalai Kakar was shot dead by Taleban gunmen in Kandahar. It’s a sad coincidence that he meaning of the name Malala or Malalai in Pashto is “grieve stricken”.

 

To Live and Skate in Kabul

If you think about Afghanistan skateboarding is probably not the first thing that comes to your mind. But there is actually a lot more to this country than the constant bad news on TV and the cliché pictures everyone has in their minds.

Some years ago I stumbled over the website of an NGO called Skateistan, an organization founded in 2007 in Kabul. The principle idea of the project is to combine skateboarding with educational purposes. They run an indoor skate-park and a back-to-school programme for kids working on the street, internal refugees and, especially, girls. After a year in the program the children can enroll in a government run school.

Also, a special focus is put on art-based education. Classes are about expression, including photography, filmmaking and poetry. The aim is to get the voice of Afghan kids out into the world. Among the videos and pictures available online one can find the stories of young students, funny sketches but also videos of people skating in very unlikely places. My favourite one is a video of a young skater taking his board to the dangerous Jalalabad Road from Kabul to Jalalabad (if you want to know just how dangerous this road is, just google it).

Girls make up more than 40% of the students. This is remarkable, especially considering how hard it usually is for girls in Afghanistan to do some sport. Skateistan puts a lot of effort in building youth leadership and promoting a strong civil society and work to empower their young students. They can become skate instructors and teaching assistants.

The guys from Skateistan master the PR sphere – there even is a movie called Skateistan: To Live and Skate in Kabul. The Skateistan-Kids also participate in the annual international Go Skateboarding Day and it makes quite an impression to see a bunch of kids on their skateboards on Kabul’s streets.

Recently, a new centre has opened in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and the organization has long ago expanded its work to other countries (i.e. Cambodia) as well.

So check them out and “Keep Skateistan Rolling” 🙂

My first post is coming soon

Hello everyone,

 

I just started this blog, and I promise the first post is coming up soon… 🙂