A new life of freedom

Mohammad Ramezin's story: From Afghanistan to Tasmania

Mohammad Ramezin knows what the face of racism looks like.

He came to Launceston two years ago as a humanitarian refugee, but it was in Iran that he was targeted for his race.

Mohammad was born in Iran to Afghan Hazara parents who fled war and terror because of the country’s civil war and fear of the Taliban.

Fellow Afghan migrant Sadeq Paiwandi said for the many Hazara Afghans living as refugees in Iran, racism is common.

“In Iran they made everything really tough for Afghanis, they put the prices up for school so the Afghanis couldn’t go to school, there is even different bread [for Afghanis] and they put the prices up for Afghanis only,” he said.

“They have decided to do something to make the Afghanis go out of Iran, so put the price up only for Afghanis to make it tougher.”

Mohammad said before he left Iran for Australia two years ago racism was a daily occurance, at work, at school and out in the streets he could feel it.

“They say something ‘funny’, put me down, say, ‘Go back to your country’,” Mohammad said.

Sadeq said it doesn’t matter if, like Mohammad, those under fire were born in Iran.

“As soon as they see the faces they don’t care where you are born they just call you Afghani, especially our people, we are Hazaras, we are really easy to notice because we have got more Asian faces,” he said.

It is only in the last decade these issues have really raised their head in Iran Sadeq said.

“The simple reason is they [the Iranians] want Afghanis to go out of there because Afghanis are hard-working people,” he said.

“There are stories all the time where, for example, if you need a worker you’d rather get Afghanis than Iranians, because Afghanis are hardworking so everyone wants them to work.

“This is why Iranians get upset ... they are always out of work and this is what made them really racist.”

But for many Afghans even this is preferable to the life they would have in Afghanistan.

Hazaras are one of Afghanistan’s largest ethnic minorities, comprising 20 per cent of their population, and there has been a long history of persecution against them. Only in 2004 Hazaras were granted equal rights under the Afghanistan constitution.

In the 1990’s, during the country’s civil war and the subsequent reign of the Taliban, life deteriorated for Hazaras, who the Taliban declared war on.

Mohammad in Iran.

Mohammad in Iran.

Sadeq said even now, a life in Afghanistan is hard to imagine.

“Every time I go there, you feel it’s your country but it’s not,” he said.

“The worst thing about Afghanistan is the war doesn't stop … it’s been more than almost 40 years now, it’s war and war and war.

“Your life, you can’t stay there, those people you see in Afghanistan they never had any chance to live in Australia, they must stay there .

“I don’t think I can see the day when I can go there and live the same as I live in Australia.”

Mohammad is happy to be an Australian now, and said this is his home.

He is studying English and thinks perhaps he will become a mechanic. His favourite food is a barbecue.

“The life here is very easy, in Iran it is very difficult because Iran does not support the refugee people,” he said.

Sadeq Paiwandi and Mohammad Ramezin. Picture: Piia Wirsu

Sadeq Paiwandi and Mohammad Ramezin. Picture: Piia Wirsu

Mohammad appreciates Australia for the “freedom, people and culture”.

“It’s a better life here, even though we lived [in Iran] for a long time, with the problems we had it is better for us to start a new life somewhere else, it is hard, but it is better better than to be noticed as Hazaras and not to work,” Mohammad said.

After a month adjusting to their new home, when Mohammad and his family wondered what was going to happen to them, they settled into Launceston life.

Mohammad is grateful to everyone who welcomed him and his family to Tasmania, where they have found a new, peaceful life where they are not discriminated against for the features of their face.

"The worst thing about Afghanistan is the war doesn't stop … it’s been more than almost 40 years now, it’s war and war and war."