Gripping Story – Najmeh Rezazadehist fled from pure love

In the living room, which is also the bedroom of the two daughters of the Rezazadeh family, an unadorned round wooden panel hangs on the wall. It says, “Smile and the world will laugh with you.” The furniture is composed of different Caritas collections. Everything is clean and tidy. There are sweets on the coffee table, lovingly spread out. Teacups are ready. Mrs. Rezazadeh warmly welcomes me to her much too small apartment. Her husband greets me only briefly, puts his hand on his chest, makes a small bow and then leaves us alone. He doesn’t want to participate in the conversation.

The family fled Iran in 2016, had to wait a long time for the right to stay in Austria and has been waiting for work for almost seven years. “It’s very hard for my husband,” says 35-year-old Iranian Najmeh Rezazadeh, who studied social sciences in her home country. “He wants to do something, achieve something. For men, especially young people, this inactivity is a huge problem.”

Robert Schneider: What strikes me is that you speak excellent German. How is that possible
Najmeh Rezazadeh: I tried to integrate as quickly as possible, taking one German course after another and when it was over, I went back to a German course. I want to understand and master this language.

Are you a political refugee?
No not at all. If I were married to an Iranian, I would probably be living in Iran today. But I married an Afghan. We also did not live in Tehran, which is more open to Afghans.

You have to explain that to me.
We lived in a small town on Queschm Island. This is on the east side of the Persian Gulf. My husband traded in clothes and was always on the road between Queschm and Shiraz. Now the police have simply rounded up Afghan men from the streets and deported them to Afghanistan. I lived in constant fear when my husband traveled, never knowing if he would return. In addition, our two daughters did not receive ID cards and were therefore not allowed to go to school. But I didn’t want my children to be denied access to education, to remain illiterate. That would have been unbearable for me. So we escaped. The big one was four years old, the small one and a half.

So you ran mainly because of the kids?
Yes, because I love them and they would have no future in Iran.

Want to talk about your escape experience?
We fled to Turkey via Tehran and previously sold everything we had. I can say that although we were not rich, we were prosperous. Most of the money went to escape. At the border with Türkiye we had to hold out for a day. There were many other refugees. We crossed the border at night. It was the most endless night of my life. My four year old daughter cried nonstop the whole way. She clearly sensed that we were all scared. Iranian police patrolled everywhere. I thought we could be caught any minute. Then it went to Istanbul and Izmir. Finally a man came and told us to go to the beach on a certain night. My girls were so happy to see the sea. They had no idea what awaited us for the night. It was rumored that a dinghy would come and take thirty people with it. In reality, there were more than eighty people in the boat. We couldn’t move an inch, sat in the back. The dinghy was so deep that we were up to our bellies in the water the entire time. Fortunately, the sea was very calm and smooth, because the boat could have capsized at any moment. I held my daughter in my arms and always listened to see if she was alive and if she hadn’t suffocated in the water. The tugboat said, “Keep rowing straight on where the lights are.” That is how we ended up in Greece, where we were very well received by the Red Cross. They brought us dry clothes, lit a fire so we could warm ourselves. Yes, and then we officially went to Athens by ship. From there to North Macedonia and finally to Slovenia on the Austrian border, where we were taken care of by the private refugee aid ORS.

How did the new freedom in Austria feel?
The first two years were the most terrifying years of my life. We had to live in one room with eleven people. Hygienic conditions were very bad. My children always had some kind of illness. Little by little, the fingernails and toenails fell out. After that they had constant lice and skin eczema. I wasn’t used to that. I come from a middle class background and grew up with a certain privacy. Another big problem were the many young men who did not know what to do with their time. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy to be in Austria.

How long did you have to wait for the right to stay?
I learned one thing. In Austria everything moves very slowly. We waited seven years.

And not allowed to work in this long time?
Yes. That’s why my husband lost all motivation. In the beginning he learned German well. But when the decision was delayed for so long, he fell into a deep depression. He always said, “It’s not going well. We have to go back.”

And your two girls? Do they go to school?
That’s the most important thing to me. The little one goes to primary school and the eldest, who is now 11 years old, goes to secondary school. They like to learn and get good grades.

Will you return to Iran when political conditions improve?
I often think about that. I don’t have an answer to that. I love my culture, my language, my city. No one leaves voluntarily. But after seven years here in Vorarlberg, the question is becoming increasingly difficult for me to answer. My children grow up here, move in this culture. For me, Austria is my second home, but for the children it is the first.