22 Safi

Safi. 34 years old. Afghan. | “My father-in-law asked me to leave because I was being threatened by the Taliban. . . . My mother preferred to not see me anymore rather than for me to be killed in front of her.” Safi kissed his four children and left his village at dawn. After six months traveling, he arrived in Paris on August 11, 2015. He now enjoys refugee status and is taking steps to bring his three boys over. His twelve-year-old daughter, Manour, will not follow them, because her paternal grandmother wants to keep the girl with her. Resigned, Safi explains that in Afghanistan you cannot refuse what your mother asks. In fact, it was also his mother who chose to marry Safi with his cousin. “I am almost 40 years old and I wonder why I never experienced love in Afghanistan. I am very happy to see that in France, love exists.”
All that Abas, Ayub, and Yasser—aged 14, 13, and 10—know of Paris are the pictures their father sends them. Safi explains to his sons that here they can go to school and have a better future. “The day my children arrive will be the first happy day of my life.” | Centre d’hébergement René Coty, Paris, France 2019