PHOTOJOURNALIST AT RISK
Ahmad Javed Akbarzada
Profile: Hazara refugees from Afghanistan, living in Azerbaijan.
Advantages: UN-certified, excellent English skills, Ahmad is an educated, experienced jacket tailor, photojournalist, filmmaker and graphic designer, volunteer graphic design and photography teacher. His wife Mina is an experienced tailor and a women's rights activist.
Risk: At risk of being tortured and killed by the Taliban if returned home.
Canadian contact: Stephen Watt
Ahmad’s (photojournalist’s) life was in danger in Afghanistan. Since he had worked on different projects with a company that had contracts with the US, his name had come on the target list of the Taliban. After his photo studio was blown up by a bomb attack, he and his family fled to Azerbaijan.
Ahmad has a beautiful and talented family. His wife Mina has been contributing to society by creating job opportunities for refugee women. Despite all the problems they have been facing as refugees, they still think of helping others. This is the time for them to find a group of five Canadian friends who can bring them to Canada where they can live with freedom and see their children getting a proper education.
His Story
Ahmad was born on June 10, 1982, in Jaghori district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan. He was a child when his family moved to Kabul.
With the civil war and the coming of the Mujahideen in Kabul, his parents fled to Jaghori and then to Pakistan. There, they had a hard life without basic human rights. Ahmad completed his school education at a school that was for Afghan refugees.
The Hazara people in Pakistan have been targets of persecution and massacres due to their religious and political beliefs. The number of target killings and bomb attacks on the Hazara innocents was being increased day by day.
“Those attacks affected me so greatly, and I realized that I had to make my people's voices heard.”
Ahmad was given the opportunity to visit a TV studio to learn how to use the camera as well as do some editing. In a short time, he started working with several local TV channels in different departments. He collaborated on a cultural project for Hazara people in Australia, called Bamiyarra. His work of photojournalism brought him into an extremely unsafe situation. He started receiving unknown threatening calls from different numbers. Knowing that he would be targeted one day if he stayed in Quetta, Pakistan, he went to Kabul and started studying journalism at a private university.
Career
Due to the threats and financial problems, he could only complete two years of his four-year course. He then started working in a construction engineering company named YLB. The company had contracts with the USA to build schools, police headquarters and roads etc.
Unfortunately, the Taliban got ahold of Ahmad’s photo and other information because he had been working on American projects. They labeled Ahmad and his colleagues “spies” and anyone who worked for the USA, according to them had to be killed.
In July 2013, Ahmad was in Helmand for an assignment when some unknown people set his tent on fire.
“During that time, I was asleep in my tent and I suffered burns to my feet.”
In 2016, Ahmad started working as the Head of Multimedia Marketing and Media Relations for the SMART System of the Oii Group in Kabul. Besides his job, he opened a photo studio office where he used to do photo shooting sessions for wedding ceremonies and product photography. As a sole Hazara man, Ahmad received numerous threatening phone calls.
Threats
One day in May 2017, his photo studio was blown up by an explosion. Fortunately, he was still at home and was about to come to his studio but the explosion destroyed it. After that incident, he received numerous threatening phone calls which led him no choice but to leave his country immediately.
On the other hand, he had met his wife in Ghazni when he was a team leader in 2012. They both married hiddenly without the permission of her parents because she was being forcefully married to another guy. They had threats from her family side too.
“After the incident, I could no longer put myself and my family at risk. So, I had to move to a safe country.”
In November 2018, Ahmad and his family traveled to Uzbekistan. A month later, they moved to Baku, Azerbaijan and registered themselves with the UNHCR on January 5, 2019.
His Achievements
In 2019, a photo and video contest were held by Azerbaijan Immigration on World Refugee Day. 18 photographers from different countries including, Germany, Turkey, the United States and The Czech Republic participated. Ahmad got first place and his photo (which was taken of an Afghan refugee lady in Baku) was the best-known photo in that contest.
From June 20, 2022 to June 27, 2022, the photo exhibition dedicated to WORLD REFUGEE DAY was held in Baku by Ahmad for the UNHCR. the photographs presented by Ahmad reflected the lives and emotions of refugees. That event was attended by representatives of state agencies, diplomatic delegations, the UN, and other organizations, as well as refugees and internally displaced communities.
Uncertainty
Ahmad says:
“We have been in Baku, Azerbaijan for more than four years now, and the conditions are so bad that we feel hopeless.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Azerbaijan is not funded. Refugees themselves manage to provide their food, maintenance, repairs and preparation of their houses though they are not officially allowed to work in the country. While facing many challenges, Ahmad has been volunteering as a graphic design and photography teacher for refugee children and adolescents at the UNHCR office in Baku.
“It’s painful to see our children living like this. The economic problems are hard enough but due to the social problems, our children’s health and happiness have been affected. Many children have not only lost their culture but they have forgotten how to read, write and speak their mother language. Children are innocent in these situations and stability is vital for their development.”
Volunteer Family
While Ahmad has been contributing to society with his knowledge, his wife Mina is also determined to continue empowering women. In Afghanistan, she had her own business of sewing and she created job opportunities for destitute women to make them independent. Now, she has created a free sewing training program and works with several Afghan refugee women inside her home in Baku. Also, by starting a baking and cooking channel on YouTube, Mina believes that she can help her family and other women.
The lack of funds, disallowance of work, and the challenge of creating a suitable place for the workshop made the start hard, but Ahmad and Mina succeeded in providing some income to refugee women who do not have official work permit in the country.
You Can Help!
Ahmad and Mina are very concerned about their children’s uncertain future. Ahmad says:
“We are innovative, self-motivated, hard-working and determined. All we want is the chance to give our children a safe and prosperous country to live in, so we can see them smile.”
This is the time for them to resettle in a safe country like Canada where they can work, contribute to society and see their children living with freedom.
Since they are officially certified as refugees by the UNHCR – unlike the vast majority of the world’s refugees – They qualify for Canada’s private sponsorship program.
If you would like to sponsor Ahmad, Mina, and their children – or if you’re just interested in helping to bring them here – please contact their friend Stephen Watt on Facebook.
You can reach out to Ahmad directly on Facebook.
Reach out and discover how wonderful it is to privately sponsor a beautiful family to start a new life – with your help – in Canada!
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