Albania: Afghan women are starting to eat to help refugees stay at home | Taliban Stories

Shengjin city, Albania – The aroma of freshly baked bread comes from a small pizzeria kitchen in the city of Shengjin – a small coastal town in Albania. Bread, however, is not part of the offerings made at the Bella Vita Pizzeria cafeteria, but rather, the Afghan naan, a common Afghan bread that encompasses most of the world culture that has been ravaged by war.

Naan is one of five new dishes being prepared in an Albanian pizzeria kitchen that has agreed to share its space with an Afghan restaurant founded by two Afghan refugee women – Hasiba Atakpal, a well-known journalist, and Negina. Khalil, the first female lawyer in the remote Ghor region of Afghanistan.

“We have lobia (red bean curry), qabili pulaw (Afghan meat and rice), bolanis (fried bread), banjan borani (eggplant in tomato sauce),” said Khalil, a well-known lawmaker. of Afghanistan. investigating cases of children registered by Afghan forces such as the Taliban, ISIL (ISIS) allies. “And as in Afghanistan, all food is provided by naan,” he added.

The familiar aroma of bread and spices encourages about 1,200 Afghan refugees in Shengjin to take part in exciting cooking, more than 5,500 miles (3,400 km) from the homes they fled from Taliban persecution after they invaded the country in August last year. . In all, about 3,000 Afghans have found refuge in Albania, many of them rescued by international aid agencies.

Although it was Khalil’s work against the militants and terrorists that put him in serious danger, Atakpal’s earlier report as a journalist for TOLOnews – Afghanistan’s largest channel – threatened him with Taliban insurgents who did not accept his job.

Both women have been forced to leave Kabul, but continue to devote their lives to serving their Afghan counterparts.

Atakpal and Khalil restaurants, called Ghezaye Afghani (meaning Afghan cuisine in Pashto, one of the Afghan languages), has no business address – located inside a local pizzeria that offered their place to two interested women.

“We started this restaurant three months ago when we saw how many Afghans who had fled to Albania missed food at home. Everyone here [at the refugee centre] he is in pain, and we wanted to do something to smile at him, “explained Atakpal.

The two women, who first met at a Middle East refugee shelter in Qatar, approached a local restaurant outside the Rafelo security area in Shengjin. All Afghans were welcomed into designated refugee camps.

Thousands of Afghan civilians were deported to Qatar after being deported to Afghanistan following the return of the Taliban in August, and as US-led foreign troops prepare to leave the country after 20 years of war.

“We told them our problem; about how the Afghan people missed local food. We explained to them the ideas we had for starting an Afghan kitchen, and they gave us permission to use their restaurant for cooking and serving, at no cost, “Atakpal said.

With a place of safety, the two women, who are now close friends, sought out the harvest to cook a real cheap meal, and sometimes they had to bring in the ingredients that were available nearby. “It’s not difficult to find ingredients.

“But our goal has been to prepare cheap food for people to buy because almost all of our customers are refugees here, just like us,” added Khalil.

He also hired an Afghan woman to cook dishes, since both women had limited cooking skills. “At home, I was so busy that I did not even sit in the kitchen. But now my family is so happy that I now live in the kitchen three days a week, “Atakpal said.

The restaurant has also found many followers among the residents of Shengjin – home to about 8,000 people.

“I am very happy when people from Albania come to us and ask us to give them plum and lobia. I see that the site is helping us to build relationships with the Albanian people who have been very good to the Afghans and welcomed us with open arms, “said Atakpal, adding that they hope their in-restaurant restaurants have left a lasting legacy for Afghans. in Albania during times of crisis.

They have applied for asylum in the United States and Canada, but it will take about a year for them to be approved.

For the Afghans, the small community has become a way to travel to another country, where they gather on popular platforms to discuss local issues.

“We find clients, Afghans from all walks of life, from all ethnic and regional backgrounds, sharing the lost and the bereaved. It helps bring community members together,” Atakpal said. “There have been very good places, that sometimes the restaurants are close by, people come and ask us when we will open,” he added.

Despite its popularity, the four-month business has not yet made much profit. Instead, there are days when they face challenges. But the women insist that the idea of ​​the business did not make a profit, instead helping the exiled Afghan people to cope with the hardships they face. Our main benefit is that our people come to enjoy their time here and eat their food.

For example, many Afghan children are accustomed to eating only Afghan food, and when they visit us, the excitement in their faces as they eat our delicious food, is everything to me, “Atakpal said.

However, there is another group of Afghan children that Atakpal hopes to serve through a restaurant – a group of 45 young girls, who are child laborers, enrolled in a small private school that Atakpal started last year, in Kabul.

“We should have closed the school when the Taliban took over, but we started again four months ago. However, we have been under covery pressure and everything is going smoothly,” said Atakpal, speaking enthusiastically to prevent the school from continuing even though the future of girls’ education is unknown in Afghanistan. She has been able to contribute to the school with some of her income from working as a journalist and editor.

Despite pressure from other countries, higher education and public universities for Afghan women have been closed since the Taliban took over last year. When the Taliban recently announced that Afghanistan’s girls’ schools and universities would reopen in March, many experts were skeptical.

Meanwhile, secret schools like Atakpal have spread across the country, operating despite pressure from local Taliban militants.

“We have students from grades 5 to 10, and they cover all the subjects in that syllabus. All the teachers are currently working as volunteers, and many are my university friends. However, there is money to buy school supplies, and we pay students for their time because they waste working time studying at school, “Atakpal said.

“At the moment, the restaurant does not make any money to support the school, and I am working as a journalist to pay for the school,” he said, adding that he hopes to expand his business to eventually support schools in Afghanistan.

Even Atakpal or Khalil do not know their future, while they wait for security confirmation.

“We have lost everything, and we are back to what it was 20 years ago, when women have no rights, no access to education, no justice, no Afghan journalists left, and the people are sad,” Atakpal said.

Khalil’s mother was killed by the Taliban in 2020, when she and her brother were beaten on the way to her mother’s grave. Atakpal’s relatives are still in Kabul.

“But even if things change, even a little bit, we will all be back in a heartbeat. Otherwise, we will continue to work in Afghanistan no matter where we are in the country. We will continue our struggle and hope to bring about change,” Atakpal said.

In the meantime, all the women are hoping that their restaurant will continue even after they leave, to be kept alive by Afghans who would choose to stay.

“If nothing else, we will ask the owner to continue to preserve Afghan food in the food, as a sign of our experience,” Atakpal said.