On Wednesday 18 November, Gulwali Passarlay enlightened a packed audience at the Frontline Club into his journey as an unaccompanied child refugee from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom. Joined by former Afghanistan correspondent for the BBC David Loyn, and Nadene Ghouri who co-authored his book The Lightless Sky, Passarlay was keen to address the complexities of the refugee crisis from both a personal and political perspective.

“My mother sent me away- she saved me but she lost me too”- @GulwaliP who left Afghanistan aged 12, running for his life (@frontlineclub)

— Maeve McClenaghan (@MaeveMCC) November 17, 2015

Loyn began the discussion by offering context on the current refugee crisis. “There are many Gulwalis in the world. Almost 60 million people are displaced, between 10 and 15 million people a year move from their homes and Afghanistan is the second largest country people flee from – 800,000 people are internally displaced.”

Passarlay began his journey when his mother paid smugglers to help him escape from Afghanistan after his father and grandfather were shot by US soldiers. “For a mother to decide to send her 12 and 13 year-old children away is extraordinary. I am sure she did not understand the implications and the dangers that I would face along the way. Neither did I,” said Passarlay. “Throughout my journey, my biggest issue and fear was uncertainty.”

Loyn asked Passarlay: “Why do you think your mother trusted your life with smugglers? And what was in it for the smugglers to keep you alive?”

“Smugglers need to maintain their reputation. The system of smuggling is more effective and efficient than the government! She was faced with a difficult circumstance, and through family friends she found a smuggler that was her only hope in giving her sons a better life,” answered Passarlay.

During the harrowing journey Passarlay was separated from his brother, which he referred to as a significantly traumatic experience. “My mother said to not let go of each other, but in Peshawar we were so quickly separated. For the rest of my journey, I had three things to do: I wanted to look for my brother, I needed to get across and I desperately missed home.”

Even arriving in Italy after a life-threatening boat trip from Greece, Passarlay was determined to get to England and find his sibling. “I am forever grateful to the people of Italy who genuinely wanted to keep me safe and welcomed and wanted to help me. But I had to find my brother.”

Responding to Loyn‘s question on why many refugees and migrants have their sights set on the United Kingdom as their final destination, Passarlay said: “I would have loved to have settled in Italy, but the language barrier was far too difficult. Whenever I talk to people from the right-wing, I tell them it’s a great thing for people to want to come to seek refuge in their country. Why? England embodies ideals of hope and opportunity; English is an international language and holds a historical and cultural connection to many countries thanks to the British Empire. But some also believe that Britain was involved in the conflict that exists in their country, such as Afghanistan, so migrants feel Britain has a moral responsibility to take them in.”

Passarlay concluded that he eventually managed to reach England and survive his journey thanks to fellow refugees, who have become his “brothers.”

“As the youngest, I needed help more than anyone. I tried not to show my innocent side, so I acted tough and put on a brave face – but this was not the case. The thousands of people I met were all literally in the same boat as me. We needed each other’s companionship and partnership.”

Loyn then directed the discussion towards Passarlay‘s difficult journey into Greece by boat, when his vessel almost didn’t make it. “Hearing that 2,000 migrants sunk earlier this year kept me awake at night. I feel their pain. I know exactly what they are going through. We were stuck [in the overcrowded boat] for 49 hours.”

Speaking on her experience of writing The Lightless Sky with Passarlay, Ghouri said: “It was a privilege to work with him. The story of unaccompanied refugee children is one I have always wanted to tell, and Gulwali is amazing for deciding to give a voice to many others who have been in his situation.”

@frontlineclub thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this evening' event for #TheLightlessSky it was great pic.twitter.com/8iJKOtqKSZ

— Gulwali Passarlay (@GulwaliP) November 18, 2015

In response to a question from Loyn on his advice for the Home Office, Passarlay commented: “What we are doing right now is not enough.”

An audience member from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England commended Passarlay for his courage in reporting his story, and said that his book should be used by the Home Office as a guide into how to better process unaccompanied child refugees. The audience member said: “I believe that things have gotten worse since you made your journey Gulwali. My organisation has churned numbers and figures to notice that since December 2014 to March 2015, over half of unaccompanied minors have their age disputed… Local authorities need to rise to the challenge.”

Ghouri agreed that the response to the refugee crisis by both the government and the media had been far from acceptable. “The British press do not report the full picture on the migrant crisis, so people in this country do not understand what is happening. There are only 3,000 people in Calais, but the press makes it feel like there are much more.”

More information about The Lightless Sky is available here.

"If it was fiction, you would not believe it.”

That is how Nadene Ghouri, a journalist and a writer, described Fawzia Koofi‘s remarkable life story told in her new memoir The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future.

The day Koofi was born, was the day she was supposed to die. As a newborn, the 19th of 23 children in the household, her mother left her out in the sun to die.

Her mother repented, Koofi survived, not only that first day of her life, but also the trials and violence that followed. In the rugged terrain of the northern province where she grew up, she watched her father beat her mother.

She knew from an early age that politics was a dangerous game. Her father, a member of the Soviet-backed parliament was killed by mujahedeen warriors before she turned four. She also lost her husband and two brothers through the years of conflict.

Now, she has become her father’s political heir and a tireless fighter against prejudice and injustice blighting the lives of women and their children in Afghanistan.

One of the first female Members of Parliament in Afghanistan, Koofi was elected as a representative of Badakshan province in 2005. She was also the first woman to be elected as Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan and the first Afghani woman to work for the UN during the Taliban reign.

Very importantly, she was also the first woman in her family to go to school, which was no mean feat when nobody in her family, apart from her illiterate mother, wanted her to do so.

Koofi has certainly been a woman of many “firsts” and now she wants to break the ultimate barrier – becoming the first female president of Afghanistan in 2014.

The questions from the audience came thick and fast. Koofi answered them all politely and quickly, with determination of someone used to winning against all the odds.

Is Afghanistan even remotely ready to accept a female leader?

“The silent majority of women and the population in general want strong leaders to represent them. They want changes. If there are female leaders in Pakistan or Bangladesh, why not in Afghanistan?”

However, the withdrawal of foreign troops scheduled for 2014 is preying of Koofi‘s mind. Once the Western troops are gone, is there a chance of fair elections was one of the questions from the audience.

"There is a lot of uncertainty in Afghanistan about whether this early withdrawal will result in sustainable democracy. We are all concerned for different reasons – I am worried about possible return of the Taliban to the power. Women’s rights can easily be compromised because women have never been troublemakers. They have never been involved in the destruction of the country. It is very easy for someone to ignore women and I am concerned that we might loose all of the gains we have achieved in the past 11 years. Worst case scenario would be another war between the Taliban and those opposing them who would not want to return to those dark times.”

Ghouri noted that there was a lot of talk about women’s rights, but at the same time Koofi was in favour of Sharia law. Could she also be a feminist?

"I am fighting for Islamic rights for women. There has been a lot of misuse of Islam, mixing it with tradition and culture. We never had female interpreters of Islam. It was always interpreted by men. I am there to stand for women’t rights and still be a Muslim.”

From the audience we heard that it would probably make more sense then to have a secular state with fewer opportunities for religion to be interpreted one way or another?

Koofi, however, believes that Afghanistan is not quite there yet:

There are many Muslim secular states, like Turkey for example. But, in Afghanistan, we need to educate the society first. Many people are so closed and traditional, that when you talk about secularism they immediately think that you are an unbeliever. I think that we just need more time for that.

Not everyone was convinced that having a female president would be a good thing for Afghanistan.

One woman who said she’d had contacts with the Taliban was sceptical that they would talk to Koofi when they didn’t even want to talk to one of their own Pashtuns, current president Hamid Karzai.

As peace talks are so important for the country’s stability, wouldn’t it be irresponsible to compromise them in this way?

"Talking to the Taliban would not necessarily bring peace to Afghanistan because they don’t really have an Afghan agenda. Taliban were created outside of Afghanistan. Those Taliban who want to join the peace process are either being arrested or killed. I agree that the only way forward is to live together in peace. But if Taliban are brought to power then some countries will want to destabilise Afghanistan as they will see this as being in their interest."

"I am talking about Taliban created by Mullah Omar. They want to rule the country. They want Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. We don’t want women to suffer again as they did before. If they want to be a part of the political process, then they should participate in the elections and win. We cannot just give them seats because they are the Taliban.”

"We would have no problems with those Taliban who accept the constitution and women’s rights. We need to hear from them, there are so many different spokespeople for the Taliban. How do we trust them?"

Although some more progressive laws are now in place, in reality it is very difficult for women to seek justice for crimes committed against them. Some wanted to know what hope was there for women in the future?

"Lack of rule of law is huge problem. The Taliban are one side of the problem, but lack of governance is equally important. There is a culture of impunity when it comes to women’s rights violations. I am fighting against it. That’s why we are working on this new law, we have put all of these issues – rape, beatings, honour killings, violence against women – as a crime. Enforcement is the next step, but we need to have laws first. Having this law approved in the Parliament has become my career challenge."

Koofi‘s vision of Afghanistan is a place where her daughters can be “respected as human beings". If anyone has a fighting chance of making this vision a reality, it is probably her.

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Left in the sun to die as a baby because she was a girl, Fawzia Koofi has lived a life defined by struggle.

The 19th of 23 children born to a member of the Soviet backed parliament who was killed when she was four years old by the Mujahedeen, she has lost brothers and her husband to the country’s successive wars.

Elected as Member of Parliament for the Badakshan province in 2005, Fawzia Koofi has spent her life fighting prejudice and injustice

She was the first woman to be elected as Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament in the history of Afghanistan.

Despite receiving regular death threats and assassination attempts she continues her struggle to improve human rights in Afghanistan, especially for women and children and plans to run for President of Afghanistan in 2014.

Join us at the Frontline Club with Fawzia Koofi and Nadene Ghouri, the co-author of the book that tells her story The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future.