If anyone knows the emotional turmoil the Iranian football players have experienced in the past 48 hours, as they leave their homeland behind for a new life in Australian, it’s Tooba Sarwari.
The Afghanistan-born cricket player left everything behind when she fled to Australia on a humanitarian visa in 2021 amid the fall of Kabul.
The Iranian footballers’ individual experiences are as unique as they are unenviable, says Sarwari,
who arrived on a humanitarian visa amid the fall of Kabul.
(Seriously … how did an editor not catch the same phrasing in consecutive sentences?)
“I don’t want this happening for none of the girls in the world,” she says, from her new home in Canberra.
She recalls her own first night in Australia in 2021, when she lay down on her bed and covered her head with her blanket.
“When I reached Australia, I realised that, ‘oh, my family is not with me’, I left everything.”
The Iranian women have chosen a life on the other side of the world from their home, from their loved ones. They have been granted temporary visas that provide a pathway to permanent residency. After four years, they may be able to apply for Australian citizenship.
Oh, I’ve reached out when their lead hed was wrong. It was fixed shortly afterward. They’ve been less open to further corrections.