Masumeh Hossini

full interview

Can you introduce yourself? 
I’m Masumeh Hossini, I’m 25 years old and from Afghanistan.

What type of accommodation do you live in now? 
We live in a house owned by the organization.

Could you explain the conditions of it? 
The conditions of the house?

Yes.
The fact that these houses are organizational houses and were under the supervision of the UN is now under the supervision of the government of Greece. And regarding the conditions, people who have gotten their acceptance will have to leave the house within a month and now it’s the end of the month for me that I have to leave.

Who do you live here with? 
We are all immigrants that come from different countries and nationalities such as Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan. We are 5 people in a single house with 2 rooms and a common hallway along with a common bathroom and kitchen. 

How do you spend your time here? Do you work? 
Yes, I’m a translator and I spend most of my time this way.

What are some things that make you happy?
Something that really made me happy was that I got my acceptance in Iran which I never had it in Iran. As in, in Iran, they never give the acceptance of that country to a refugee, but here I was able to get my acceptance as well as get a job. 

Ever since you entered Europe, how has your life been? What was difficult for you and what was good for you? 
The most difficult thing that happened was our entry to the camp because we never imagined of where we are going to live, and the moment we faced the camp, it felt like all of our hopes and dreams that we had regarding Europe were completely destroyed. And the worst thing that happened was for my sister who was recently born. Her lungs had an infection and was hospitalized for 3 months. This was the worst thing that happened to us. 

Can you explain how living here has made you feel? 
Current feelings?

Yes, in all ways.
Honestly, it can’t be said with one word or one feeling because, in different situations, we would experience different feelings. Most of the time we would feel humiliated or discriminated against by the local people. I’ve even sensed the feeling of hatred from the people. But also, I’ve seen their feelings of love and care. 

What feeling do you get being away from your family members or home and how has it affected you? Can you explain? 
Being far from family is a problem that almost all people have here… well, it’s an incident that happened to us… Because we all have lived with our family our entire lives but we have separated here. It was a very bad feeling that I can’t even explain the feeling I had when I separated from my family for the first time, but it really built me. I’ve really become independent and learned a lot of things in my solitary life and now my only worry is my family. 

Did you ever imagine coping with this condition? How were you able to overcome this condition and continue your life?
I think humans won’t understand their true strength unless they are in a difficult situation. As in, in the beginning, imagining the fact that you’re going to live alone in a different country is really scary but when you are in the situation, you will eventually find a way to overcome it. One thing that happens a lot to us is getting the feeling of depression and other bad feelings. But the thing that I did… I was able to overcome it by any means. Either by finding a job, or registering for a class. I have to make myself busy with something actually. 

Do you think you have the ability to overcome these challenges or do you think you had the strength or solution to cope with these issues? 
To an extent, I had the strength, because most of our life was in immigration, and living in Iran has really made the Afghani people there strong because they had the same challenges there in Iran but not to this extent, because we faced another set of challenges here which was not in Iran. One of them was not speaking the same language as the people of Greece. But I can say that I got most of my strength here. 

How has corona affected your daily life? Both emotionally and spiritually? 
Overall, it has a negative impact because it has stopped us from doing a lot of things. Maybe if corona wasn’t there, we could have better registered for our classes. Classes in the presence are more effective than online classes. And it has been a year since I didn’t see my family due to the quarantine situation. I even had the option to travel but I couldn’t because of the quarantine.

Why did you leave the country? Can you describe what happened? 
If by the country you mean Afghanistan… when I was almost 13 years old, I left the country, and now because of the unstable conditions such as war, bad economic conditions, and other problems. But I left Iran because we were immigrants and didn’t have good conditions. 

What feeling did you have at that time when everything happened? 
The feeling that I got at that time was the feeling of homesickness because I was moving from the place where I grew up and spent most of my life there to a place that I know nothing about. And after reaching here, we faced a completely different thing than we imagined.

How was the journey to Europe? How did you come to Europe? Did you have any specifically difficult experiences that you can tell us? Regarding your journey. 
We had a lot of difficulties on the way. For example, there were cold nights when we used to sleep outside and I’ve only seen this in the movies. I never imagined the fact that people spent their nights outside in the cold and not in their houses. This was something that I experienced. I experienced all the things that I never imagined when I was on the way.

What feeling did you get at that time? 
The feeling that I got at that time was mostly the feeling of weakness because I used to think I was a very weak person and used to cry or quarrel with others, especially my father, telling him “Why are we in this situation?” while also seeing that there were a lot of small children that neither wanted food from their parents nor did they cry, but I couldn’t tolerate that situation. 

Do you often think of these incidents that happened? When do you think about these? Is there anything specific that you think about often?
When I see clips of other immigrants, especially the clips that are published from the camp such as Bosnia, Servestan (Iraq), or Greece, I remember all those memories… or when I speak to other immigrants about the incidents.

What feeling do you have when thinking about them? 
Umm… Sometimes I think that I was happier than many others because I didn’t lose anyone. Nothing bad happened to me but I heard a lot that many have lost their loved ones on the way. 

Has the current condition that you faced had an impact on you? How? 
Something that the current condition has impacted me is, well… I mainly looking… to try and give the slightest to the people of my kind. 

How were you able to get along and move on from these conditions?  Did you have any strategy or mechanism to overcome the difficult days and memories? Where did you get the spiritual strength and support?  
Most of the power that held me throughout the difficulties that we faced were my goals and my goal was to achieve all of my dreams and I wouldn’t have reached my goals in Iran. This was something that held me. 

What was your dream before the incident that led to you running away from your country? 
My dream and hopes were to reach a level of stability. By stability, I mean educational, financial, and social, which was not possible for me in Iran. 

What are the hopes and dreams you have now for the future? 
Right now, my dreams for the future are the stability that I talked about… to continue my education, achieve the things I want, and create a normal and good life for myself.