Top Afghan Graduate: “It’s a Struggle Being an Immigrant Student"

In Iran’s most recent nationwide university entrance exams for Master’s degrees, Morteza Shafahi came top of the list. Shafahi, who received his Bachelor’s degree in international relations at Hakim Sabzevari University in Sabzevar in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan, will continue his studies at Tehran University. When I talked to him, he was calm and measured, and careful when answering questions. “You must accept that an immigrant student who has studied political science in Iran for four years would become totally cautious,” he says.

Morteza Shafahi was born in 1995 in Iran. “Thirty-some years ago my parents came to Iran from Kabul,” he says. “All my siblings were born in Iran. We are seven sisters and brothers and I am the fourth child.” Although they were all born in Iran, they are not Iranian citizens. “The citizenship laws vary from country to country,” Shafahi tells me, based on his own experience as well as his knowledge of political science. “In some countries it is based on soil, while in others it is based on blood. According to the Iranian constitution, it’s the blood that decides. So those who have Afghan parents are not Iranian citizens.”

But Shafahi’s father wanted all his children to get a university education in whatever way they could. “Before going to university,” he says, “I had UN refugee documents and an Iranian residency permit.” With these documents, he was allowed to register at schools, but his family had to pay tuition even when he studied at state-owned schools that are free for Iranian students. “In the early years it was more difficult,” he tells me. “Immigrant students had to pay the Ministry of Education and the government to get permission to study at state-owned schools. For a few years the tuition was high and then, for a couple of years, it was free.”

Pass Exams and Lose Your Residency Permit

After Afghan university students pass the entrance exams, they lose their residency permits. At that point, they are required to leave Iran and return with a student visa. “This was my first time in Afghanistan but everything felt familiar, all alleys and back alleys,” he says. These visas are issued for one year and must be renewed on an annual basis.

Morteza Shafahi had been accepted at a state university but, as a foreign student, he had to pay the same tuition that students taking night courses paid, even though he was a day student. And the better the university, the higher the tuition that immigrant students have to pay. “For example, if we are accepted to a first-rate university, we have to pay a tuition of one million to 1.2 million tomans [between approximately $240 and $280]. If the university is in the second or the third tier, then tuition per semester is around 800,000 or 900,000 tomans [between approximately $188 and $212].”

Most Afghan students have to work to pay their tuition, as did Shafahi, who traveled from Sabzevar to Mashhad, the provincial capital, when school was not in session. “Sabzevar is a small town,” he says. “There is not a lot of work there and the pay is not high. That is why I went to Mashhad and worked in any shop that gave me work — from dress shops to toy shops to supermarkets.”

“Afghan” as an Insult

Until two years ago, children of parents who were considered to be illegal immigrants and did not have residency permits were barred from schools. But then Ayatollah Khamenei ordered that these children should be allowed to enroll in schools.

Beside education discrimination, Afghan immigrants in Iran face a range of other obstacles. “An Afghan immigrant gets a driving license with the utmost difficulty,” says Shafahi. “They must be students, must have a residency permit, must have a passport and must be married before they are allowed to take the driving test. I don’t get the married part,” he adds with a laugh.

As an Afghan student in Iran, Morteza Shafahi has experienced the full force of discrimination, and yet he says he does not like to dwell on it. “In Mashhad, Afghan immigrants are treated better than in other cities,” he says. “I noticed the discriminating attitude of people more when I traveled to Qom, Yazd or Isfahan.” He mentions, too, that sometimes his nationality is used as a pejorative term to humiliate him. “For instance,” he says, “if somebody fails to successfully compete with me, he mentions my nationality.”

These ordeals gave Shafahi further determination to study hard and become the top student in Master’s degree entrance exams. “I wanted to come out on top so I would be free to choose my university and my field of study,” he says. “Becoming the top student gives a sense of empowerment to an immigrant student and I wanted to show that an immigrant student can do it, too.” He studied for six months before taking the exam. “At the beginning I studied four hours per day but, as the exam draw closer, I sometimes studied for 15 hours a day.”

Eligible for Scholarships?

The government of Afghanistan has promised to give scholarships to the three Afghan students who score top in entrance exams, and Iran’s Ministry of Science has announced that all top 100 immigrant students can study for free. Still, Shafahi is not so sure this will happen. He says he has taken all necessary steps but so far, he has not heard anything. At the same time, he says he has not lost hope. “Even if I do not get the scholarship I will work again and continue my education,” he says. “I want to get my Master’s degree from Tehran University and then go to a European country for my PhD.”

Shafahi has also decided to return to Afghanistan after getting his doctorate. “In Afghanistan they value young people, especially those with expertise,” he explains. “The process of meritocracy has started in Afghanistan and that is why it is the best place for me.”

I remind him that he was born and raised in Iran and has visited Afghanistan only once. Does he consider himself an Afghan or an Iranian, I ask? “One hundred percent Afghan,” he answers without hesitation. And then, after pausing, he says: “Nobody in Iran considers us Iranians.”

More on the plight of Afghan refugees in Iran:

The Rape of an Afghan Girl — and One Man’s Attempt to Cover it Up, June 7, 2018

The Impossible Achievements of Afghan Students in Iran, June 4, 2018

Iran’s Afghan Allies Demand Recognition, January 11, 2018

The Afghan Schools Run by Afghan Refugees, December 20, 2017

Caught up in Clashes: Iran’s Afghan “Green Movement” Prisoners, April 21, 2016

Afghan Workers are Scapegoats For Iran’s Poor Economy, May 20, 2015

Afghan Children Denied Education, June 25, 2015

The Never-Ending Saga of Iranians and Racism, October 16, 2015

Against the Odds? Maryam Monsef and the Canadian Dream, November 11, 2015

Afghan Media Visit Schools for Refugees in Tehran, January 2015