Iran's Afghan Community Faces Growing Animosity

On the streets of Tehran, Fereshteh's story echoes the complex reality of Afghans in Iran. 

Born in Iran to Afghan parents, Fereshteh represents the third generation of her family to call Iran home – yet none are considered Iranian citizens.

Fereshteh's journey from being a Tehran University graduate to a small town in eastern Germany illustrates the push and pull factors affecting Afghans in Iran. 

While she recalls a time when "people were kind," and there was only "a faint shade of racism," recent reports paint a starkly different picture.

Social media in Iran now buzzes with increasingly hostile comments towards Afghan immigrants. 

This shift in attitude comes as many Iranians grapple with economic hardships and political frustrations under what they perceive as an undemocratic religious government. 

The deteriorating situation for Afghans in Iran is multifaceted.

While they have long been denied basic human rights and have lived in fear of deportation, recent campaigns by certain movements seek to make their conditions even more challenging.

Fereshteh's experience as a Shia from Herat, considered "Sadat" or descendants of the Prophet of Islam, afforded her family some privileges. 

Her father's journey from a laborer to an architect also enabled her to attend top Iranian universities.

However, such opportunities came with a price – the family had to pay school fees after the elementary level, a burden many Afghan families could not bear.

Today, from her new home in Germany, Fereshteh watches with concern as the country she still considers her "homeland" grapples with changing attitudes towards its Afghan population. 

Fereshteh points to numerous news reports of hate acts across Iran, saying, "I can't believe it. In the past, only the Iranian government humiliated us. 

"They ignored our humanity and denied us rights despite international condemnation. 

According to Fereshteh, who lived in Iran until she was 30, the fear is "understandable" given the pressure on Iranians and Iran's role as a gateway to Turkey and Europe following Kabul's fall to the Taliban. 

"However," she adds, "burning down the homes of those who share your pain is terrible."

The Afghan woman refers to a BBC Persian report and videos from last week. The reports recorded several Afghans in Fars province saying their homes were attacked and nearly set on fire in recent nights. 

These attacks followed the alleged death of a 62-year-old man at the hands of his 17-year-old Afghan restaurant worker. 

No official media in Iran has confirmed the murderer's nationality.

Such violence has become more frequent in recent months. Perhaps the most painful incident was the murder of Elias Mohammadi, a 19-year-old cleaner thrown off a bridge on suspicion of "insulting the flag of the Islamic Republic." 

Another video on social media showed a young Afghan man, humiliated and sexually abused by attackers, being forced to say he would not return to Sanandaj by a man in a pseudo-military uniform brandishing a machete.

Although Iran has provided temporary shelter to many Afghans, especially after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, it is also one of the largest deporters of refugees. 

Reports from the Danish Refugee Council indicate a significant increase in the deportation of Afghan refugees by Iran, with at least half a million deportations since Kabul's fall.

High-ranking Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have shown both visible and implicit support for the Taliban. 

This support has led to a predictable humanitarian crisis, driving many Afghan citizens to flee through Iran in search of safety in other countries.

Mehrdad Darvishpour, a sociologist and professor at Malardalen University in Sweden, said economic pressures, class divisions, unemployment, poverty, and related adversities can lead to the simplistic public response of finding a scapegoat for these issues.

He explained, "The history of the sociology of immigration shows that immigrants often become the first victims of this kind of reaction."

Darvishpour noted that this phenomenon is not unique to Iran but is a global issue. 

He said, "In Europe and the Western world, when domestic problems grow, discourses emerge blaming immigrants for saturating the labor market, spreading crime, burdening society, or threatening national security." 

The academic pointed out examples such as former United States President Donald Trump's efforts to build a wall to prevent Mexicans from entering the US, Marie Le Pen's anti-immigrant stance in France, and far-right groups in Germany and Sweden intensifying anti-immigration and xenophobic policies.

He argued that Iran has also been affected by this global wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. 

"In Iran, they used to prevent Afghans from entering parks or blame them for crime and delinquency in newspapers, but today it has escalated to burning down their houses," he noted.

Darvishpour highlighted that the situation for immigrants in Iran is worse than in the West for two main reasons. 

Firstly, many Afghans in Iran are deprived of minimum standards of asylum and immigration, such as birth certificates and residency documents, making them significantly more vulnerable than many immigrant groups in other countries. 

This increased vulnerability raises the likelihood of attacks and assaults.

Secondly, Darvishpour said that democracy and citizenship rights are absent in Iran, and socioeconomic and political conditions have deteriorated, leading to the collapse of human and moral values. 

"In such a situation, it is difficult to remind people and convince them of the value of human solidarity and the right of all human beings to enjoy equal conditions," he added.