Searching for a home: the bitter experiences of Afghanistani ‘returnees’

Abstract

Negotiating the language, culture and social norms of one’s ‘homeland’ can be a painful and difficult experience In 2004, Khadija Abbasi became part of the generation forced by the Iranian state to ‘return’ to Afghanistan, though they had been born in Iran. Negotiating this ‘voluntary return’ ‐ one of the UNHCR’s ‘preferred’ options for refugees ‐ proved extremely difficult. The Iran-born and Iran-raised ‘returnees’ had to re‐learn ‐ through a complex process of socialisation that was accompanied by local rejection and stigmatisation ‐ how to construct an attachment to their new country. Abbasi describes difficulties of language, culture, religious practice and social norms ‐ made all the more complex by her Hazara identity and questions of gender. In Iran refugees had simply been ‘Afghan’; after arrival in Afghanistan people realised they were Hazara. In a country that was overshadowed by ethnic politics, they had to adapt to processes of re-ethnicisation. Moreover, in Afghanistan patriarchy was inflected differently, sometimes in ways which intersected with ethnic identity. Eventually Abbasi was forced to leave her job with an NGO because she was perceived to have behaved in a way that ???disrespected??? Afghan traditions.