Afghan family reunited with 'dead' father

newsjunkie ^ | 10 February 2004 | By AMANDA SPRATT

[gdyniawitawa]

When Mari Ayubi took her five young children and fled her homeland of Afghanistan, she thought her husband was dead.

Now, sitting next to him in Christchurch after seven years apart, she still cannot believe he is there.

"God has given us a new life," Mari Ayubi beams.

Her daughter, Madina, 12, said the whole family was pinching themselves.

"We didn't think we were going to see Dad again. When he came, the first night we thought we were dreaming. When we woke up the next morning, we saw it was true."

The disbelief is wearing off, but the joy remains. Torn apart by the Taliban regime, the Ayubi family was reunited through the United Nations refugee agency a week ago.

Rauof Ayubi, a journalist and photographer in Kabul, had made many television documentaries for Afghani television. But the documentary he was making for BBC on the Taliban, showing graphic footage of the cruelty the regime inflicted, would be his last.

One morning, Rauof Ayubi went to work, and never returned. Taliban soldiers had taken him to his home for the next five years – a hidden underground prison where he saw the sun just once a week.

He does not want to talk about his life inside – he would prefer to leave it up to the imagination – but a damaged kidney and injured leg are the result of regular beatings.

Mari Ayubi tried to find him, but was told by soldiers her husband was dead.

Kabul had become too dangerous to stay in, and Mari took her children – the eldest, Frozan, was seven at the time, the youngest, Haroon, just one – to Pakistan.

Madina remembers: "There were lots of bombs, so we ran away. It wasn't safe."

The family came to New Zealand as refugees, arriving in Christchurch in December, 2001.

Coming to a foreign country with five children with no knowledge of English was by no means easy for Mari Ayubi, a trained nurse.

The family had little of their old life with them. A torn photo of the family – their last photo with their father before he was taken away – was one of their few treasured possessions.

Then, just days after they had arrived in Christchurch, the family found out Rauof Ayubi was safe, freed from prison when American troops stormed Kabul.

It took another two years before the family could see Rauof Ayubi again, but it was worth the wait.

The family cannot speak enough of their praise for the families and the children's teachers who helped them adjust to Kiwi life, and for the New Zealand government that has returned to them a husband, a father and happiness.

For Rauof Ayubi, learning English is the first task in his new life

[Mercat]

It's George Bush's fault. We need more stories like this one.

[getgoing]

back later