Hazara girl

Hazara School Girl, originally uploaded by Jonathan @ Gaucin.

I'm blogging from Italy now, and met a Hazara - an Afghan refugee whose family fled to Iran in the 1980s during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. They are stil afraid to go back to Afghanistan.

But he had to leave Iran in order to find work as it's getting more and more difficult for the Afghan refugees there.

He says he never intended to stay in Italy. A shoemaker who speaks German and English in addition to his mother tongue, Farsi, he said he was on his way to Austria but only ended up in Italy because he got cheated.

He had to teach himself Italian and has been arrested but now he's found an employer who is willing to overlook his illegal status and says he's doing ok though he misses his family. But at least he doesn't have to worry about them as for the women, life in Iran is ok. They don't have to find work, he says.

This Hazara girl on Flickr made me think this is what his daughter would look like - especially when she thinks about her daddy.