Farhat's video testimony

Farhat grew up in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, a conservative part of the country where the majority of the population are Pashtun. Out of step with mainstream society, her mother insisted that local custom should be defied and Farhat should be university educated.

After university she had an arranged marriage to a man of her father’s choice. A few years into the marriage, her husband developed shizophrenia and became increasingly violent towards her. Eventually, after years of abuse and fearing for her own safety and that of her three children, she left him and returned to live with her parents. Her parents felt that she had brought dishonour on the family.

She remembers her mother telling her “it is a woman’s destiny, violence, it is a woman’s place, she has to take it. And you’re no different from other women, you should have born it too.”

Under great pressure from her family to restore their honour, Farhat finally agreed to remarry. Her second husband was from a wealthy Pachtun family, and was against Farhat working. At the time she was head of the gender and development program in a provincial NGO.

The abuse started soon into the marriage – both to Farhat and her children. Her parents refused to take her back a second time and she felt she had no choice but to remain in the marriage. She says that her hands were tied by Pakistani family law which gives custody of children over 7 years of age to the father if he can prove the mother is morally corrupt.

When Farhat’s daughters were 5 and 7 years old, her mother-in-law had them engaged to her two other grandsons, who were then 15 years older than the girls and known for their violence. She had no say in the forced marriages.

Farhat takes up the story.

“I also knew – because he told me - that he would never divorce me. He said, ‘if you ever even mention the word divorce I’m going to kill you’”.

“So I decided to leave Pakistan. I knew that we didn’t have any hope, I knew that my family was not going to help me, the courts were not going to help me, the law was against me and I knew that all traditions were against me. My husband was influential enough that if I ever decided to leave him he wouldn’t let me live.”

At the time, Farhat was based at the British Council in Pakistan and working for the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID).

“Once the plane was in the air I thought: at least we have some hope now… but I was leaving all my family, my job, all that I had worked for all these years. My parents were very old and I knew I would never see them again. It was very, very difficult.”

On landing at Heathrow, Farhat and her children claimed asylum.

“Perhaps I was very naïve then also, perhaps because I worked for DFID and the British Council as part of there women’s rights agent, and because I had seen how on their agenda women’s rights was right on top and they always put pressure on the Pakistan government to give more rights to women, I somehow believed that when I came to the UK that they would be very sympathetic towards me… I wasn’t prepared to be treated the way that I was."

“It started from the moment we landed here and it went right through the whole 7 years that our asylum claim lasted. I still remember the immigration officers just started shouting at me, I’m going to send you back on the next plane, enjoy your holiday Mrs Khan, and then go back to your home”.

Two months after they arrived, Farhat and her children were transferred to Manchester.

“I’ve got used to the area now, but oh God it was…I can’t tell you how scared I was when they dropped us off. It was a council estate – very rough – there was glass all over the floor. The people from NASS [National Asylum Support Service, now called NAM, the government body responsible for looking after people who are seeking asylum] told me that this house had been broken into many times before because it was been lying vacant. It was all boarded up, they said they didn’t know we were supposed to be moving into it. This was an area they were trying to regenerate by sending asylum seekers there.”

"I was leaving my family, my job...all that I had worked for..."

The hardest part of all was not being able to work.

“I had become used to supporting myself, now I was forced to be on benefits. I was used to working, now I had nothing to do – I just sat at home”.

After her first application was refused, Farhat put in a fresh application. She started actively campaigning against her deportation and collected 10,000 signatures in support. Her local MP, Graham Stringer, intervened on her behalf.

As a result of her voluntary work, Farhat was invited to Buckingham Palace. Ironically, a further claim for asylum had again been refused only shortly before. The media got wind of this, and the story was widely reported in the press. Not long after, following an administrative oversight in looking at her asylum status, she was invited to Downing Street.

“I just walked up to Tony Blair and offered him my hand. He had to look at me…. And then I thanked him and said thank you for inviting a failed asylum seeker to Downing Street. He said ‘Oh yes I’ve heard about you and I wish you and your family all the best.’ And I wanted to tell him it’s not luck it’s your government that is going to make the decision but … I didn’t want to cause problems.”

After seven years of campaigning against the Home Office - her anti-deportation campaign was the second largest there has ever been in the UK - Farhat and her children were finally granted refugee status in 2008.

Farhat reflects on her experience of what she calls the ‘seven lost years’ of seeking asylum.

“Because I belonged to a rich family I never really knew what it was like to be poor…we had a driver, someone who used to cook and wash for us, we left a very pampered life and came to live in a very small overcrowded council house. Initially we didn’t know where to get cheap clothes and food… with time we learnt to live with poverty…these years of struggling and fighting the Home Office have given me a better understanding of what oppression really means.”

But though she has refugee status, some things haven’t changed.

“I think that being an asylum seeker is not about immigration status, I think it’s a state of mind. You become one with time. The Home Office turns you into one… perhaps it will take me 7 years to stop feeling like one because it took the home office 7 years to make me feel like one”.

Prohibited from working while she was waiting for a decision, volunteering provided a vital outlet for her skills and need to do something useful with her time. In 2005 Farhat set up WAST (Women Asylum Seekers Together) a self-supporting group for women refugees in Manchester, and the first of its kind. In November 2007 WAST Manchester was awarded the Elizabeth Gaskell Award for "the Group in Manchester who has promoted the role of women in public life and has made a significant contribution to the local gender equality". It also has a branch in London.

Farhat now works as a university lecturer and advice worker in Manchester. Two of her children are at university and the other three are at school.

Articles on Farhat have appeared in The Guardian and The Independent.

Everyone has the right to seek asylum. The Testimony Project believes that those seeking refuge in our country should have the right to dignified, humane and fair treatment that respects their human rights, protects their physical and mental wellbeing, and that follows a fair and efficient process. Deliberate destitution, violent deportation, the splitting of families, and dehumanising detention run counter to the original spirit of asylum and should cease immediately. Please, hear our voice.

Brave Heart

bob (not verified) — Sat, 04/10/2010 - 11:13

Great Inspirational video who are living the life of frustration in asylum, as refugee. I have watched it again and again. It's so close to the heart, feels like you are sharing your life's bitterness straight with me. Life shows us many ups and downs, which we never imagine of. Farhat, I must say you have been in very injustice from your marriages from your own parents. But you showed a great strength and reached up to here. I felt so sad about the screaming of the immigration officers at you, to send you back on the next plane, saying enjoy your holiday Mrs Khan, and then go back to your home”. I believe that everyone has right to be dignified like you say though they be a refugee or whatever. Anyways, all the best for your coming days, i think this is what called life as it has to go on.
Regards
Home Theater Installation

good

Anonymous (not verified) — Mon, 03/22/2010 - 11:41

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a+ certification

you're a source of inspiration

Anonymous (not verified) — Mon, 10/26/2009 - 18:45

Farhat, I heard about The Testimony Project from a colleague - I work with asylum seeking women - and have just seen your video... that you have spoken out like this gives other women strength to do the same. So many of the women that I work with echo exactly your thoughts - the sheer waste of all those years of waiting, the futility and the heartache. The real tragedy is that none of this goes away when you get refugee status.

TO BE AN IMMIGTANT IN BRITAIN

ilyas orhanli (not verified) — Wed, 08/26/2009 - 10:00

IT IS A FULL OF HUMILIATION NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU ARE PAYING TAX AND INSURANCE.MAY GOD HELP TO FOREIGNERS AND MAY GOD HELP ENGLISH PEOPLE TO SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GLOBAL WORLD.BECAUSE ENGLISH PEOPLE HAVE GOT RIGHT TO TRAVEL EVERYWHERE THEY WANT BUT IF A FOREIGNER WANTS TO COME DOWN TO ENGLAND,EXAGERATIONS STARTS.I BELIEVE THAT FERHAD IS RIGHT WHAT SHE IS SAYING.ilyas orhanli

Testimony Project - Government Procedures Fail Asylum Seekers

Nick Bishop (not verified) — Tue, 07/28/2009 - 16:19

This is an absolutely fantastic project. Well done. The videos demonstrate very powerfully how delayed and incompetent administrative procedures can have a huge impact on the well-being of asylum seekers. They're supposed to just be relieved they're away from danger, and they are. But there is a complete lack of empathy. It can be utterly soul destroying if you have nothing to do and you are in a constant danger. Speed up the decision-making process now, and make sure officials understand the human being behind the situation. Then we can curb the daft and deliberately cynical tabloid articles bemoaning how the backlog affects 'us', and we can help asylum seekers stop being left in limbo. Brilliant work. Thank you. Best of luck.

Farhat's video testimony

Brave Heart

good

you're a source of inspiration

TO BE AN IMMIGTANT IN BRITAIN

Testimony Project - Government Procedures Fail Asylum Seekers

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