With tensions escalating, and a deadline approaching, the Iranian government has accelerated deportation of an estimated six million undocumented Afghan migrants. In the last month, more than 250,000 people—including thousands of women—have been compelled to go back to Afghanistan. How the regime has operated has created real issues, especially for women who return without support, and often in vulnerable positions.
Sahar, a widow from Baghlan, spent more than 10 years living in Iran. She experienced a terrifying experience when police arrested her to hold her at a refugee camp outside of Shiraz. Despite having no legal recourse, she fought to stay, and with her children, was ultimately deported back to Afghanistan. I didn’t even have the opportunity to pack their clothing. They picked them up in the very early morning hours. I had pleaded with them to allow me at least two days to retrieve my belongings. They didn’t listen. They just sent us to the street like trash,” she remembered.
To the Afghan refugees’ misfortune, the Iranian regime imposed a deadline upon undocumented Afghans to leave the country by this past Sunday, triggering an acceleration of deportations. According to our account, at least 100 unaccompanied women have been returned through a single border crossing in Nimroz province. Here’s how it went down between March and May 2023. Yet most of these women encounter heavy repercussions when they come home. The harsh Taliban regulations ban them from even traveling without a male guardian or working which is why many shelters are full.
To return to Afghanistan without a male escort it places these women’s lives in a direct peril. The Taliban imposes harsh punishments for violations, such as public flogging. Sahar expressed her despair about her situation: “I asked for land [from the Taliban], anything to start again. But then they told her, ‘You’re a woman, you have no mahram. You don’t qualify.’
Afghan border officials have recently informed us of a very alarming new trend. As many as 4 or 5 of those deportees along whose path a tragic and deadly fate would befall them are found to have died in transit! The deportation process conditions are just as troubling. Shameful treatment Deportees, many of whom are women and children, are often treated with contempt. They experience price gouging on food and other essentials when they are transported.
Sahar described her harrowing experience while traveling from Shiraz to Zahedan, stating, “From Shiraz to Zahedan, they took everything from us. My bank card had [15 million tomans (£110)]. They charged 50,000 tomans for a bottle of water, 100,000 for a cold sandwich. And if you didn’t have it, your child went without.”
Most deported Afghans reach the border starving and tired after facing underscanned of travel under perilous hot weather. It is the lack of basic services along their transit that has garnered national outrage. Zahra*, another deported woman, recounted her ordeal: “They said it’s a waste for you Afghans. My child cried from the heat, but the driver laughed and mocked us.”
Women trying to come back without male guardians face substantial logistical hurdles. Next, they face greater exposure when their rights to a society have been largely curtailed. An unnamed woman who recently returned with a four-day-old baby lamented, “You’re not eligible. You don’t have a man with you. My baby is just four days old. Where am I supposed to go?”
As Sahar’s experience showcases, this is the reality for many women when they come back home. She has a very elderly mother in Baghlan and her all-too-real future is of no home, work or husband able to keep her. Standing at a metaphorical crossroads, her future is dark and murky. These bleak economic circumstances are rendering survival an uphill battle. Women are often forced to pay such prices for the most basic services, spending 50,000 tomans on a bottle of water and 100,000 tomans on a cold sandwich.