What happened to my friend Dr. Tariq Habubyar

Murdoch Stephens introduces us to one of the people whose stories appear in his new book, seen now! Aotearoa’s response to global emergencies of refugees.

On Thursday, my book on Aotearoa’s response to refugee emergency crises was released. I was lucky that the book Grass Nine Stories of Advocacy and Escape from Community Members. In this article, I want to share a story of a friend who wasn’t there for the release, because he no longer lives in Aotearoa.

I met Tariq in 2017, near the end of the campaign, began to double the New Zealand refugee quota. He was visiting Wellington de Canterbury and considering a permanent movement after finishing his doctorate in education. I was living in a lively house in Roseneath – musicians, artists and comrades that were going and going – which led to Tariq subleting a fourth with us for their early two months in Wellington.

Tariq fit well. He lived an incredible life in Afghanistan, committed to the education of young girls and women and moved around the world with a curiosity that attracted him to our group. For a guy who was close to death on many occasions, he somehow maintained an open mind energy and his faith. He was always looking for ways to support those who needed help in Afghanistan: as his social company that imported Afghanistan saffron and created jobs for women.

Our relationship was not in a way or charitable. A year later, Tariq came to the rescue of our group. When our contract ended after more than a decade rolling, my apartment colleagues were desperate to find a new home. Tariq was there to point out that the apartment above him was becoming available. Our group met the owner and, with the charm and guarantees of Tariq, were enrolled with a few weeks plenty. For about a year, our loose group lived in the apartment above Tariq, knowing it, his wife and daughter.

In March 2020, it arrived and Tariq and I met with no place to live. His wife and daughter were visiting the family in Türkiye and he had been pushed out of his home so that the owner’s daughter could move. Covid meant that I gave up my lecture contract in Beirut a few weeks after I gave up my room in the apartment that inspired my novel, RATO KING OWNER.

Some of our original groups just moved to Whanganui and had some spare rooms. It was the third time we gathered. With a heavy backyard of fruits and vegetarians, at the height of the harvest season, the four of us live in cases of Covid, then fell.

In the background, Tariq worked in a series of university and governmental jobs. At one point I told the number of people who depended on it: 17. Yes, many of these people had other small incomes, and many subsisting about the cost of living in Afghanistan, not Auckland, but Tariq’s commitment to support others should be recognized.

Obviously, we all know what happened next: the return of the Taliban in a few weeks in ruins. I will let Tariq explain what happened, in his own words, from his contribution to VIEW NOW!

Afghanistan by Dr. Tariq HabyByar

It was mid -2021, when he learned in social media that Taliban surrounded Herat, my place of birth. It was shocking news: with thousands of Armed Forces defending the city, how could this happen? We later found that, as in all other parts of Afghanistan, the country was handed over to Taliban. They did not take it to force.

What caught my attention at the time was a famous heratic old man whose men had tortured my family, had taken weapons to fight the Taliban. Despite what the men of this man had done with my family, I was admired by him and prayed for his victory, from my house in Palmerston North.

Despite the lies told to the people of Afghanistan that the Taliban had changed, many of us knew they didn’t. Unfortunately, we were proven. As an educator and someone who has spent most of my life in seeking to learn and teach, the most serious act and the violation of human rights by Taliban was the closure of schools and universities for women members of Afghan society. We knew Taliban would do just that.

In mid -August, a city after a city and province after the province were delivered to Taliban. Like thousands of families who had worked with the international community within Afghanistan, my family was forced to flee. Afghan family members outside Afghanistan were lucky because members of their families could take them away.

I was desperately trying to help my family. I contacted and sought help from the Prime Minister’s office to any deputy I knew in New Zealand. Almost all of them sent me a URL or other generic information of little or no use during this emergency. Little did I know that the country that I am a citizen, the country I love and proud, did not have a policy of “a needy friend is a de facto friend”, at least not in relation to Afghans or more specifically in relation to my people.

I soon realized that I should give up the New Zealand government to help my family. I created funds through generous Kiwi friends and started talking to my friends around the world who had connections in other countries. Within weeks, we help my family and several others escape Afghanistan.

To shorten the story: Most of these families ended up in North America. As soon as they arrived, they began to contribute to the economy and cultural wealth of Canada and the US. Some families ended up in Europe.

I’m in Canada now and when people ask me where I am and say, New Zealand, their answer is almost always “wow.”

“Wow” is indeed what New Zealand deserves. It is one of the most beautiful countries on the planet and is blessed with indigenous peoples and many other wonderful people who call this country by home. However, with regard to immigration policies regarding certain nationalities, it is not yet there to say the least.

When all my attempts to save my loved ones and bring them to my home country, New Zealand, I was deeply disappointed by the immigration of New Zealand and the political decision makers. I was deeply disappointed by the policies that made me feel like my loved ones and it didn’t matter. But I believe that Aotearoa has the potential to become an exemplary country, not only for its beauty, but also for the fair treatment of all, regardless of its background, race, nationality and religion.

I talked to Tariq about two weeks after the last flights came out of Cabul airport.

We had a coffee in the sun in Hataitai. I was a little worried about seeing him because he knew he had gone through so much and there is something terrible to be with a friend who feels he has no more options. He was doing better than I expected, but I also knew that his acceptance was caused by exhaustion not by serenity.

As he writes above, he is no longer in New Zealand: he managed to find his family’s security in North America that he could not find in Aotearoa. I want to repeat something he wrote: “The policies that made me feel like my loved ones and I didn’t matter.” Tariq is being educated, as it is always. But these are not spending feelings based on the standard alienation of the swamp caused by bureaucracy. These words represent a realization of not belonging. As a configuration policy, it gets annoyed; As something that happens from an intimate friend, it’s annoying.

I wrote VIEW NOW! Being a resource for communities that are invaded with concern and prepared by hope, but don’t know where to turn around. I was in at least a dozen calls where I leave people know what worked and did not do, the ways that could be open to them and the people who will decide can bring the family here.

While New Zealand has just received about 1,500 non -resident Afghan people, few members of the Afghan community of 6,000 people were already here.

I know every crisis situation will be different and the cabinet needs flexibility when considering each one. I also know that we had only three intakes of the eight current emergencies of the eight UN refugee agencies. There has to be some middle ground, where those with families in these five other are able to quickly take their families safely. I hope this book is the beginning of the conversation about how we can do this.

VIEW NOW! Aotearoa’s response to global emergencies of Murdoch Stephens refugees ($ 30, to the left of Equator Press) is available for purchase at Unity Books.