What is Happening to Afghan Refugees in Iran: A Humanitarian and Moral Crisis
by Niloufar Pourzand
Thank you very much for your invitation. Thank you Professor Hynie, Michelle Millard and colleagues and friends for joining us online and in person. Thanks to some of my students who are here too.
I have been associated with the CRS now for over two decades and did some of my PhD work as a Visiting PhD Scholar here around the year 2002 – on Afghan Refugee Women in Pakistan – so over 20 years back. And was also a member of York U’s Women in Conflict Zones Network coordinated at the time by Professor Wenona Giles, a former Director of the Centre, bringing in perspectives from Afghanistan/Iran. And was keenly following developments with the CRS’s BHER project, also initiated by Professor Giles some years back – and I see HaEun here who has been very involved with that project too. In any case, it has been some years since I have given a talk at CRS – the last time was in 2016 when Professor Jennifer Hyndman was the Director and I was invited to become the Centre’s inaugural Professor of Practice. I am thus very happy to have this opportunity again.
I am indeed particularly grateful for the opportunity to share with you in brief my perspectives about a topic very close to my heart. At the same time, I am also very sad it has to be to the occasion to discuss such a profoundly difficult and heartbreaking subject– one about the -unjust pain and suffering of other human beings – those for which we as a collective have responsibilities towards – where as those concerned with refugees and refugee rights – whether as Iranians and Iranians in the diaspora – as activists and feminists and otherwise.
I am sharing these issues with you as an Iranian, as an Iranian-Canadian, as a former UN staff member, including for the Afghanistan Office from 1997 to 2002, as an activist/feminist and an academic/University Professor and perhaps, I hope, a friend and ally of Afghans. I have had connections with Afghanistan since childhood, when my father was an Iranian diplomat in Pakistan, and we had Afghan friends, and visited Kabul in the 1960s for the first time as a child. And then did my MA and PhD on Afghanistan – with travel inside the country - and worked for UNICEF Afghanistan for five years – 1997 to 2002 – frequently visiting various provinces of the country. Just to give you a bit of a background about my connections with Afghans and Afghanistan and where I am coming from.
I am here to share and condemn what is happening/has happened to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran. More than 1.5 million Afghan refugees and migrants have been sent back in 2025, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), while the Red Cross says more than one million people more could be sent back by the end of the year - these mass deportations - which go against all human rights principles and international agreements including the UDHR, CRC, CEDAW and Refugee Convention. In a more recent article dated 17th of October, the official number for deportees is given as 2 million from Iran to Afghanistan during this period – imagine 2 million human beings like you and I.
These deportations accelerated immediately after the recent 12 day war of Israel and the US (13-24 June 2025) during which over 900-1000 innocent Iranian and also some Afghan refugees living in Iran were killed and thousands of homes/hospitals etc. were also destroyed, in addition to the military and political targets – including Senior IRGC Officials and Scientists engaged with Iran’s Nuclear Installations. And by now – the Government has somewhat achieved its goals with the deportations and they have slowed down though not stopped.
I, like most Iranians, of course condemn this war/attacks in the strongest way possible – inspite of my/our opposition to the policies and actions of the Iranian Regime. I/we believe that the future of Iran and any changes should be determined only by Iranians themselves and we will never support or endorse or be silent in the face of foreign aggression against our country.
Afghans have been coming to Iran seasonally and otherwise at all times – way before the conflicts began in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the arrival of at times up to 4 and even 6 million Afghans into Iran at certain peak periods. The countries share a long border, history, many aspects of each other’s culture and language – though not all Afghans nor all Iranians are Persian or Dari speaking. Nevertheless, it is the lingua franca in both countries. The ties between the two countries are very strong especially in the border provinces and areas. You might have heard that there are thousands of Iranian women married to Afghan men – mostly from low-income families. I could share many stories about the hard lives of many of these women and their families – having met some also inside Afghanistan- but let me suffice by saying that finally after decades of advocacy by various Organizations – these women can now conditionally pass on their citizenship to their children. Obtaining citizenship for the children is not automatic and requires a security check of the child and his/her father by intelligence organizations, as well as other legal processes. It is a very complex process and most such families still live in limbo, unfortunately, and are also adversely affected by these deportations.
Iran is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Iran deposited its instrument of accession in 1976, with reservations to certain articles. Iran, like Pakistan, has often been the No.1 or No.2 country hosting refugees in the world. I often share with my students that while countries like Iran and Pakistan have hosted up to 6 million refugees for decades – we see Western/Global North countries and their politicians raising such an uproar with much much smaller number of refugees.
Life for Afghans has never been easy in Iran (or Pakistan) – and there have always been many restrictions on them and unfortunately, some degree of racism, xenophobia and discrimination. There have been ups and downs and at times the situation has been a bit better and at times a bit or much worse for them – for various reasons – including domestic political reasons and surely at times, international and UN/UNHCR mediation. But nevertheless, several generation of Afghans have been born in, raised in, lived, worked, studied, got married, had children, grown old and died in Iran without ever having set foot in Afghanistan. Many of them are effectively stateless, yet are not officially recognized under this category of refugees. They do not possess Afghan ID cards and cannot obtain them, as there is no record of them—or even their fathers—within Afghanistan’s civil registry – only one of the many challenges they face after such deportations. For example, here in Toronto, I know a young Afghan brother and sister, who came as refugees from Greece, supported by a NGO, to Canada, a few years ago. They were both born in Iran, have never visited Afghanistan, and Afghanistan is as foreign to them as it is for most of you/us.
These millions of Afghans have also contributed immensely to Iran and its economy thru their hard labour including in the construction and agricultural sector as low-wage workers, as tailors, as grave-diggers, and so much more, (I am reminded of an Afghan poet in Iran who wrote a beautiful and moving verse saying “it is our hands that has built your homes and towns and yet this is how we and our children are treated”) and also as consumers, in these times when Iran has faced the largest number of sanctions ever imposed on a country. Some have become university students and graduates, artists/writers/actors/doctors/teachers and otherwise and thus contributed also to Iran’s cultural milieu. As of late 2024, there were over 60,000 Afghan university students in Iran, according to official Iranian figures. This number is considered unprecedented, with Iran Front Page - IFP News noting that the number of Afghan students in Tehran alone surpassed that of Kabul.
These rich and varied contributions are not often spoken about unfortunately. For example, just last month at TIFF, I met Fereshteh Hossaini, an Iranian-born Afghan actress, who is now quite well known in Iran and married to one of our best actors, Navid Mohammadzadeh, and both continue to live and work in Iran. She was here with the Director – an Iranian woman – to introduce a movie called Between Dreams and Hope about a lesbian couple and their struggles in Iran – a very bold movie and theme for Iran.
The Government of Iran – sadly like a number of other countries in the region including Pakistan - has also engaged in economic practices that are immensely unfair and unjust. It has encouraged investment from individuals fleeing Afghanistan after Taliban returned to power in 2021, only to later change policies and prevent those investors from withdrawing their assets, leaving them empty-handed and unable to recover their money.
At times, some Afghans in Iran, have also sadly got involved in the political/oppressive policies of the Regime including by fighting in the Region such as in Syria during Asad’s time, under the rubric of Lashkar e Fatemiyoun, in exchange for promises of higher pay and being given legal status in the country. Of course, this has always been a very small minority of Afghans and the majority have been busy enough trying to make ends meet and survive and have not supported such policies and actions by any means. Neverthless, it is an argument used at times to weaken empathy for the plight of Afghans in iran.
After the recent Israeli/US attacks, unsubstantiated news circulated that some Afghans assisted the Israelis in achieving their military goals in Iran, though of course their knowledge of sensitive Regime intelligence matters must have been limited and the most serious damage would have come from Iranian infiltrators rather than Afghans. And in fact officials later said that not a single case was verified. Nevertheless, for reasons we are not sure of but perhaps to realize a plan they had in mind for some time or to distract public opinion and international eyes off internal suppression of opponents and CSOs and others – or perhaps to “divide and rule” – especially in the past weeks following the war there has been an extremely aggressive and inhumane process of harassment, arrest and expulsion of close to one million Afghans from Iran, as mentioned, fining heavily any Iranian hiring such an Afghan or housing them. In the 16 days after the conflict with Israel and US ended, according to the United Nations, what transpired was one of the largest forced movements of population this decade.
“Iran has also been building a wall along its massive eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan to stem the flow of irregular migration, and smuggled drugs and fuel. The parliament is also planning for a national migration organisation that would take over its efforts to crack down on irregular migration.” (Al Jazeera article)
This has led to terribly tragic situations including separated children, loss of any and all savings and income, arrest upon return to Afghanistan by Taliban, in some cases, and absolute destitution and suffering. As many homes in Iran are acquired under a “rahne” system, where Afghan refugees, like Iranians, pay large sums of money up front in exchange for housing, landlords are now often unwilling or unable to return those funds. In many cases, this represents the life savings of Afghan families – lost forever upon these expulsions.
This is besides the fact that upon return to Afghanistan and for many it is not a return since they were never in the country – many will no longer be able to work or go to school or receive medical care and otherwise. Most or many of the young girls deported to Afghanistan will face early or even forced marriage due to a lack of access to education and economic opportunities – in what has been called by the UN and other CSOs a “gender apartheid regime”.
Can you imagine being a girl in high-school or even University and being sent back to a Taliban-run Afghanistan and having to stay at home – if you have a home – with very limited and restricted mobility and no hope to continue or finish your education. Young boys, on the other hand, may face significant challenges and, in some cases, may be recruited by armed groups or the de facto government, which also holds extreme ideological positions. Many were born in Iran and only speak Farsi/Dari and have never been to Afghanistan before and are in fact “foreign” to the country – as mentioned. For Hazara minorities, who are mostly Shiite Moslems, like most Iranians, it is even harder and they face additional discrimination. Many Hazaras have been targeted and even killed.
“Mai Sato, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran is among four special rapporteurs who decried the mass returns recently, adding their voice to rights organisations such as Amnesty International.” (Al Jazeera)
“Afghanistan remains unsafe under Taliban rule. These mass returns violate international law and put vulnerable people, especially women, children, and minorities, at severe risk of persecution and violence,” Sato said.
Unfortunately, this has happened, maybe not coincidentally, when Pakistan has also been carrying out the same policies and forced deportations, in addition to aerial bombardments of some border areas, and the killing of innocent Afghans, including children. You might have heard in the news two days back that the two countries have reached a “ceasefire” in these border aggressions. The Pakistani Government has been sending drones to border areas in response to, it claims, attacks by the Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan militant group which operates from sanctuaries across the Afghan border. Amongst many rights-based Organizations, Amnesty has also expressed its serious concerns over these escalated attacks and we hope that the recent ceasefire holds as civilians are those that suffer both, both Afghans as well as Pakistanis.
Unfortunately, though a number of Progressive Iranian organizations and groups (and I know that the pattern is the same in Pakistan through activist Pakistani friends), including some of our prominent feminists, and individuals like myself, in Iran and in the diaspora, have spoken up against these expulsions and human/refugee rights violations – there has not been a mass protest by Iranians and there are even some who support such actions for various reasons, falling for their xenophobic and racist propaganda, and/or are indifferent. We have much more work to do in this regard and the recent events have resulted in what some of us Iranians would say is “shameful behavior” which bears heavily on our conscience as Iranians and will continue to haunt us.
Millions of Iranians were mobilized and moved by the death/killing of Mahsa Zhina Amini 3 years back (a young Iranian-Kurdish woman arrested for her hejab and found in a coma after detention and who later tragically died) and this shaped the Women, Life, Freedom Movement – but have not always been able to articulate it in an inclusive enough manner to also include equally the rights of Afghans and Afghan girls and women in Iran and back in Afghanistan, unfortunately. Or for that matter also the rights of Palestinian girls and women – in view of the Israeli genocide of the past two years in Gaza and its dire consequences for girls and women.
Of course, this response or lack of response from many Iranians is happening at a time when Iranians are themselves facing the traumas of this recent war, worries about it resuming, economic hardships and the acceleration of the Regime’s harsh treatment but our fates are interlinked in many ways – and there is no positive way forward unless Afghans in Iran are also treated humanely and according to International Refugee Law. It is also happening when there is immense pressure on Afghan refugees in Pakistan as well, as mentioned – and other geopolitical dynamics and also xenophobic and anti-refugee policies and actions in the Global North, US, many European countries and a dramatic reduction in Humanitarian and Development Funding and programmes.
UNHCR for example – which should be the main International Organization supporting Afghan refugees is facing an immense shortage in its funds overall but also for Afghanistan. UNHCR requires over $478 million for the 2025 Afghanistan emergency response, but as of late September 2025, has only received about 35% of that amount, leaving a significant funding gap. The funds are used to provide emergency assistance like shelter, food, water, and cash to vulnerable Afghans and refugees, including returnees, both within Afghanistan and in neighboring countries but with these cuts in ODA, and the pressure of the returns, you can imagine how tough it is. All other UN agencies with a presence in Afghanistan, including UNICEF, the Organization I worked with for over 3 decades, INGOs and local NGOs, Afghan business men, families etc. have all been engaged and trying their best to support the deportees but it is the bare minimum for most. I have been in touch with colleagues regarding their intense efforts in this regard.
It is indeed a particularly difficult moment in time and we are witness to serious backlashes in many sectors with immeasurable impact on the lives of millions of individuals in the Region and beyond.
Some of those who have been deported are now trying to finalize their Afghan ID cards/documentations and re-applying or applying for Iranian visas and it is yet to be seen how many can return/will return and what the future will look like for them. For example, a case I know thru friends, a young man who dug wells outside Tehran, in a place called Damavand, was got once, set free thru the intervention of his Iranian employer, and then caught a second time, and sent back, leaving behind his wife, 7 months pregnant at the time. The child is now born and the couple are desperately hoping he can return sooner rather than later otherwise, she and the child will have to return to Afghanistan too. And there are literally thousands of stories like that.
Apparently, Iran is now facing a labor shortage – or rather cheap labour shortage - because of this deportation and has recently announced that it will give 200,000 work visas for Afghan laborers and has been in discussion with the Taliban authorities regarding this matter and the overall plight of Afghans in Iran. But nevertheless, the threat/sense of insecurity continues for Afghans in Iran and an Afghan friend told me only yesterday how her mother back in Iran is even scared to go to the mosque or in fact most any public spaces. Another friend mentioned how in a park that used to be frequented by many Afghan families – now you see none. And many other such anecdotes – sadly. Just today, I heard from an Iranian friend, retired from UNHCR, and then read in the media, that many Iranians now object to reports of a new bill, reportedly under consideration in the Iranian parliament, that would grant citizenship to foreigners (i.e. Afghans and Iraqis) if they enter into a temporary Shi’ite marriage (sigheh) with an Iranian woman. As you can imagine, this has dire consequences for the Iranian girls and women potentially involved and is only another dimension of the serious gendered repercussions of all such policies and actions.
As always, what is needed and in fact is needed more than ever and Iranians like myself advocate for and which is also why I wanted to share this with you here today, is – 1) an immediate end to this inhumane and undignified expulsions by Iran and Pakistan whether in its initial mass/grand-scale or its current sized down manner 2) return of Afghan’s assets, jobs, schooling opportunities and otherwise as possible, in Iran and Pakistan 3)provision of humanitarian assistance to those affected/deported especially children, women, minorities and families 4) advocacy by the UN/UNHCR and others with the Iranian and Pakistani Governments to halt these actions and find medium and long term sustainable solutions based on human rights and other normative frameworks 5) provide support to Afghan Organizations including Afghan Women’s Organizations to work alongside progressive Iranian and Pakistani Organizations and other Organizations at all levels and build bridges, solidarity and greater understanding in line with International Human Rights Conventions and Agreements and of course, being here at CRS, in Canada 6) Canadian Government and NGOs/CSO/academia continue/maintain/increase their support of Afghans in Afghanistan/in the Region and in Canada.
The lives of millions of Afghans is at stake and especially for Iran, our futures are interlinked, and how Iran treats Afghans and Afghan refugees is also a reflection of how Iranians are themselves treated by the Government, and I feel, the aspirations for human rights, freedom and independence, which is strong amongst both Afghans and Iranians, and our CSOs and social movements, cannot be separated from one another. We can be strong and succeed together or continue to live the fraught lives of the present.
I think this is all the time we have now and I look forward to hearing from you all, learning from you and further sharing our experiences and perspectives, in the hope of finding more humane and human rights based ways forward together.
Summary
In her talk at York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies, Niloufar Pourzand described the accelerating expulsion of Afghan refugees from Iran as one of the gravest human rights crises in the region. She recalled two decades of professional and personal connection to Afghanistan and condemned the forced return of up to two million Afghans from Iran in 2025, calling the deportations a violation of international law and fundamental human rights conventions. The mass expulsions, she explained, intensified after the June 2025 war involving Israel and the United States and have left countless families destitute, separated, and stateless.
She traced the long and complex history of Afghan migration to Iran, noting that millions of Afghans have lived, worked, and studied there for generations, contributing substantially to Iran’s economy and culture despite discrimination and lack of legal status. Many were born and raised in Iran and have never seen Afghanistan. Deportations, she said, have destroyed livelihoods and stripped families of life savings paid as housing deposits, while those returned to Afghanistan face persecution, poverty, and gender-based restrictions, particularly women and girls barred from school and work.
The speaker linked these expulsions to rising xenophobia and political manipulation within Iran, as well as to similar crackdowns in Pakistan, warning that both governments are violating international refugee norms. She cited the severe underfunding of UNHCR’s Afghanistan response and urged coordinated advocacy by international and local organizations.
She concluded with a call for action: an immediate end to deportations by Iran and Pakistan; restitution of lost assets and jobs; humanitarian support for affected families; stronger UN and NGO advocacy; and sustained Canadian and international engagement with Afghan and Iranian civil society. How Iran treats Afghan refugees, she emphasized, mirrors how Iranians themselves are treated — and both peoples’ struggles for dignity, rights, and freedom are inseparable.
Quotes
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“Imagine two million human beings like you and I being uprooted and expelled — this is not migration policy, it is human tragedy.”
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“The deportations violate every principle of the Refugee Convention, the CRC, CEDAW, and the UDHR.”
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“Many of those expelled were born in Iran and have never set foot in Afghanistan; they are effectively stateless.”
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“How Iran treats Afghans is also a reflection of how Iranians are themselves treated by their government.”
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“Our futures are interlinked — we can only succeed together or continue to live the fraught lives of the present.”
Thank you very much for your invitation. Thank you Professor Hynie, Michelle Millard and colleagues and friends for joining us online and in person. Thanks to some of my students who are here too.
I have been associated with the CRS now for over two decades and did some of my PhD work as a Visiting PhD Scholar here around the year 2002 – on Afghan Refugee Women in Pakistan – so over 20 years back. And was also a member of York U’s Women in Conflict Zones Network coordinated at the time by Professor Wenona Giles, a former Director of the Centre, bringing in perspectives from Afghanistan/Iran. And was keenly following developments with the CRS’s BHER project, also initiated by Professor Giles some years back – and I see HaEun here who has been very involved with that project too. In any case, it has been some years since I have given a talk at CRS – the last time was in 2016 when Professor Jennifer Hyndman was the Director and I was invited to become the Centre’s inaugural Professor of Practice. I am thus very happy to have this opportunity again.
I am indeed particularly grateful for the opportunity to share with you in brief my perspectives about a topic very close to my heart. At the same time, I am also very sad it has to be to the occasion to discuss such a profoundly difficult and heartbreaking subject– one about the -unjust pain and suffering of other human beings – those for which we as a collective have responsibilities towards – where as those concerned with refugees and refugee rights – whether as Iranians and Iranians in the diaspora – as activists and feminists and otherwise.
I am sharing these issues with you as an Iranian, as an Iranian-Canadian, as a former UN staff member, including for the Afghanistan Office from 1997 to 2002, as an activist/feminist and an academic/University Professor and perhaps, I hope, a friend and ally of Afghans. I have had connections with Afghanistan since childhood, when my father was an Iranian diplomat in Pakistan, and we had Afghan friends, and visited Kabul in the 1960s for the first time as a child. And then did my MA and PhD on Afghanistan – with travel inside the country - and worked for UNICEF Afghanistan for five years – 1997 to 2002 – frequently visiting various provinces of the country. Just to give you a bit of a background about my connections with Afghans and Afghanistan and where I am coming from.
I am here to share and condemn what is happening/has happened to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran. More than 1.5 million Afghan refugees and migrants have been sent back in 2025, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), while the Red Cross says more than one million people more could be sent back by the end of the year - these mass deportations - which go against all human rights principles and international agreements including the UDHR, CRC, CEDAW and Refugee Convention. In a more recent article dated 17th of October, the official number for deportees is given as 2 million from Iran to Afghanistan during this period – imagine 2 million human beings like you and I.
These deportations accelerated immediately after the recent 12 day war of Israel and the US (13-24 June 2025) during which over 900-1000 innocent Iranian and also some Afghan refugees living in Iran were killed and thousands of homes/hospitals etc. were also destroyed, in addition to the military and political targets – including Senior IRGC Officials and Scientists engaged with Iran’s Nuclear Installations. And by now – the Government has somewhat achieved its goals with the deportations and they have slowed down though not stopped.
I, like most Iranians, of course condemn this war/attacks in the strongest way possible – inspite of my/our opposition to the policies and actions of the Iranian Regime. I/we believe that the future of Iran and any changes should be determined only by Iranians themselves and we will never support or endorse or be silent in the face of foreign aggression against our country.
Afghans have been coming to Iran seasonally and otherwise at all times – way before the conflicts began in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the arrival of at times up to 4 and even 6 million Afghans into Iran at certain peak periods. The countries share a long border, history, many aspects of each other’s culture and language – though not all Afghans nor all Iranians are Persian or Dari speaking. Nevertheless, it is the lingua franca in both countries. The ties between the two countries are very strong especially in the border provinces and areas. You might have heard that there are thousands of Iranian women married to Afghan men – mostly from low-income families. I could share many stories about the hard lives of many of these women and their families – having met some also inside Afghanistan- but let me suffice by saying that finally after decades of advocacy by various Organizations – these women can now conditionally pass on their citizenship to their children. Obtaining citizenship for the children is not automatic and requires a security check of the child and his/her father by intelligence organizations, as well as other legal processes. It is a very complex process and most such families still live in limbo, unfortunately, and are also adversely affected by these deportations.
Iran is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Iran deposited its instrument of accession in 1976, with reservations to certain articles. Iran, like Pakistan, has often been the No.1 or No.2 country hosting refugees in the world. I often share with my students that while countries like Iran and Pakistan have hosted up to 6 million refugees for decades – we see Western/Global North countries and their politicians raising such an uproar with much much smaller number of refugees.
Life for Afghans has never been easy in Iran (or Pakistan) – and there have always been many restrictions on them and unfortunately, some degree of racism, xenophobia and discrimination. There have been ups and downs and at times the situation has been a bit better and at times a bit or much worse for them – for various reasons – including domestic political reasons and surely at times, international and UN/UNHCR mediation. But nevertheless, several generation of Afghans have been born in, raised in, lived, worked, studied, got married, had children, grown old and died in Iran without ever having set foot in Afghanistan. Many of them are effectively stateless, yet are not officially recognized under this category of refugees. They do not possess Afghan ID cards and cannot obtain them, as there is no record of them—or even their fathers—within Afghanistan’s civil registry – only one of the many challenges they face after such deportations. For example, here in Toronto, I know a young Afghan brother and sister, who came as refugees from Greece, supported by a NGO, to Canada, a few years ago. They were both born in Iran, have never visited Afghanistan, and Afghanistan is as foreign to them as it is for most of you/us.
These millions of Afghans have also contributed immensely to Iran and its economy thru their hard labour including in the construction and agricultural sector as low-wage workers, as tailors, as grave-diggers, and so much more, (I am reminded of an Afghan poet in Iran who wrote a beautiful and moving verse saying “it is our hands that has built your homes and towns and yet this is how we and our children are treated”) and also as consumers, in these times when Iran has faced the largest number of sanctions ever imposed on a country. Some have become university students and graduates, artists/writers/actors/doctors/teachers and otherwise and thus contributed also to Iran’s cultural milieu. As of late 2024, there were over 60,000 Afghan university students in Iran, according to official Iranian figures. This number is considered unprecedented, with Iran Front Page - IFP News noting that the number of Afghan students in Tehran alone surpassed that of Kabul.
These rich and varied contributions are not often spoken about unfortunately. For example, just last month at TIFF, I met Fereshteh Hossaini, an Iranian-born Afghan actress, who is now quite well known in Iran and married to one of our best actors, Navid Mohammadzadeh, and both continue to live and work in Iran. She was here with the Director – an Iranian woman – to introduce a movie called Between Dreams and Hope about a lesbian couple and their struggles in Iran – a very bold movie and theme for Iran.
The Government of Iran – sadly like a number of other countries in the region including Pakistan - has also engaged in economic practices that are immensely unfair and unjust. It has encouraged investment from individuals fleeing Afghanistan after Taliban returned to power in 2021, only to later change policies and prevent those investors from withdrawing their assets, leaving them empty-handed and unable to recover their money.
At times, some Afghans in Iran, have also sadly got involved in the political/oppressive policies of the Regime including by fighting in the Region such as in Syria during Asad’s time, under the rubric of Lashkar e Fatemiyoun, in exchange for promises of higher pay and being given legal status in the country. Of course, this has always been a very small minority of Afghans and the majority have been busy enough trying to make ends meet and survive and have not supported such policies and actions by any means. Neverthless, it is an argument used at times to weaken empathy for the plight of Afghans in iran.
After the recent Israeli/US attacks, unsubstantiated news circulated that some Afghans assisted the Israelis in achieving their military goals in Iran, though of course their knowledge of sensitive Regime intelligence matters must have been limited and the most serious damage would have come from Iranian infiltrators rather than Afghans. And in fact officials later said that not a single case was verified. Nevertheless, for reasons we are not sure of but perhaps to realize a plan they had in mind for some time or to distract public opinion and international eyes off internal suppression of opponents and CSOs and others – or perhaps to “divide and rule” – especially in the past weeks following the war there has been an extremely aggressive and inhumane process of harassment, arrest and expulsion of close to one million Afghans from Iran, as mentioned, fining heavily any Iranian hiring such an Afghan or housing them. In the 16 days after the conflict with Israel and US ended, according to the United Nations, what transpired was one of the largest forced movements of population this decade.
“Iran has also been building a wall along its massive eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan to stem the flow of irregular migration, and smuggled drugs and fuel. The parliament is also planning for a national migration organisation that would take over its efforts to crack down on irregular migration.” (Al Jazeera article)
This has led to terribly tragic situations including separated children, loss of any and all savings and income, arrest upon return to Afghanistan by Taliban, in some cases, and absolute destitution and suffering. As many homes in Iran are acquired under a “rahne” system, where Afghan refugees, like Iranians, pay large sums of money up front in exchange for housing, landlords are now often unwilling or unable to return those funds. In many cases, this represents the life savings of Afghan families – lost forever upon these expulsions.
This is besides the fact that upon return to Afghanistan and for many it is not a return since they were never in the country – many will no longer be able to work or go to school or receive medical care and otherwise. Most or many of the young girls deported to Afghanistan will face early or even forced marriage due to a lack of access to education and economic opportunities – in what has been called by the UN and other CSOs a “gender apartheid regime”.
Can you imagine being a girl in high-school or even University and being sent back to a Taliban-run Afghanistan and having to stay at home – if you have a home – with very limited and restricted mobility and no hope to continue or finish your education. Young boys, on the other hand, may face significant challenges and, in some cases, may be recruited by armed groups or the de facto government, which also holds extreme ideological positions. Many were born in Iran and only speak Farsi/Dari and have never been to Afghanistan before and are in fact “foreign” to the country – as mentioned. For Hazara minorities, who are mostly Shiite Moslems, like most Iranians, it is even harder and they face additional discrimination. Many Hazaras have been targeted and even killed.
“Mai Sato, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran is among four special rapporteurs who decried the mass returns recently, adding their voice to rights organisations such as Amnesty International.” (Al Jazeera)
“Afghanistan remains unsafe under Taliban rule. These mass returns violate international law and put vulnerable people, especially women, children, and minorities, at severe risk of persecution and violence,” Sato said.
Unfortunately, this has happened, maybe not coincidentally, when Pakistan has also been carrying out the same policies and forced deportations, in addition to aerial bombardments of some border areas, and the killing of innocent Afghans, including children. You might have heard in the news two days back that the two countries have reached a “ceasefire” in these border aggressions. The Pakistani Government has been sending drones to border areas in response to, it claims, attacks by the Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan militant group which operates from sanctuaries across the Afghan border. Amongst many rights-based Organizations, Amnesty has also expressed its serious concerns over these escalated attacks and we hope that the recent ceasefire holds as civilians are those that suffer both, both Afghans as well as Pakistanis.
Unfortunately, though a number of Progressive Iranian organizations and groups (and I know that the pattern is the same in Pakistan through activist Pakistani friends), including some of our prominent feminists, and individuals like myself, in Iran and in the diaspora, have spoken up against these expulsions and human/refugee rights violations – there has not been a mass protest by Iranians and there are even some who support such actions for various reasons, falling for their xenophobic and racist propaganda, and/or are indifferent. We have much more work to do in this regard and the recent events have resulted in what some of us Iranians would say is “shameful behavior” which bears heavily on our conscience as Iranians and will continue to haunt us.
Millions of Iranians were mobilized and moved by the death/killing of Mahsa Zhina Amini 3 years back (a young Iranian-Kurdish woman arrested for her hejab and found in a coma after detention and who later tragically died) and this shaped the Women, Life, Freedom Movement – but have not always been able to articulate it in an inclusive enough manner to also include equally the rights of Afghans and Afghan girls and women in Iran and back in Afghanistan, unfortunately. Or for that matter also the rights of Palestinian girls and women – in view of the Israeli genocide of the past two years in Gaza and its dire consequences for girls and women.
Of course, this response or lack of response from many Iranians is happening at a time when Iranians are themselves facing the traumas of this recent war, worries about it resuming, economic hardships and the acceleration of the Regime’s harsh treatment but our fates are interlinked in many ways – and there is no positive way forward unless Afghans in Iran are also treated humanely and according to International Refugee Law. It is also happening when there is immense pressure on Afghan refugees in Pakistan as well, as mentioned – and other geopolitical dynamics and also xenophobic and anti-refugee policies and actions in the Global North, US, many European countries and a dramatic reduction in Humanitarian and Development Funding and programmes.
UNHCR for example – which should be the main International Organization supporting Afghan refugees is facing an immense shortage in its funds overall but also for Afghanistan. UNHCR requires over $478 million for the 2025 Afghanistan emergency response, but as of late September 2025, has only received about 35% of that amount, leaving a significant funding gap. The funds are used to provide emergency assistance like shelter, food, water, and cash to vulnerable Afghans and refugees, including returnees, both within Afghanistan and in neighboring countries but with these cuts in ODA, and the pressure of the returns, you can imagine how tough it is. All other UN agencies with a presence in Afghanistan, including UNICEF, the Organization I worked with for over 3 decades, INGOs and local NGOs, Afghan business men, families etc. have all been engaged and trying their best to support the deportees but it is the bare minimum for most. I have been in touch with colleagues regarding their intense efforts in this regard.
It is indeed a particularly difficult moment in time and we are witness to serious backlashes in many sectors with immeasurable impact on the lives of millions of individuals in the Region and beyond.
Some of those who have been deported are now trying to finalize their Afghan ID cards/documentations and re-applying or applying for Iranian visas and it is yet to be seen how many can return/will return and what the future will look like for them. For example, a case I know thru friends, a young man who dug wells outside Tehran, in a place called Damavand, was got once, set free thru the intervention of his Iranian employer, and then caught a second time, and sent back, leaving behind his wife, 7 months pregnant at the time. The child is now born and the couple are desperately hoping he can return sooner rather than later otherwise, she and the child will have to return to Afghanistan too. And there are literally thousands of stories like that.
Apparently, Iran is now facing a labor shortage – or rather cheap labour shortage - because of this deportation and has recently announced that it will give 200,000 work visas for Afghan laborers and has been in discussion with the Taliban authorities regarding this matter and the overall plight of Afghans in Iran. But nevertheless, the threat/sense of insecurity continues for Afghans in Iran and an Afghan friend told me only yesterday how her mother back in Iran is even scared to go to the mosque or in fact most any public spaces. Another friend mentioned how in a park that used to be frequented by many Afghan families – now you see none. And many other such anecdotes – sadly. Just today, I heard from an Iranian friend, retired from UNHCR, and then read in the media, that many Iranians now object to reports of a new bill, reportedly under consideration in the Iranian parliament, that would grant citizenship to foreigners (i.e. Afghans and Iraqis) if they enter into a temporary Shi’ite marriage (sigheh) with an Iranian woman. As you can imagine, this has dire consequences for the Iranian girls and women potentially involved and is only another dimension of the serious gendered repercussions of all such policies and actions.
As always, what is needed and in fact is needed more than ever and Iranians like myself advocate for and which is also why I wanted to share this with you here today, is – 1) an immediate end to this inhumane and undignified expulsions by Iran and Pakistan whether in its initial mass/grand-scale or its current sized down manner 2) return of Afghan’s assets, jobs, schooling opportunities and otherwise as possible, in Iran and Pakistan 3)provision of humanitarian assistance to those affected/deported especially children, women, minorities and families 4) advocacy by the UN/UNHCR and others with the Iranian and Pakistani Governments to halt these actions and find medium and long term sustainable solutions based on human rights and other normative frameworks 5) provide support to Afghan Organizations including Afghan Women’s Organizations to work alongside progressive Iranian and Pakistani Organizations and other Organizations at all levels and build bridges, solidarity and greater understanding in line with International Human Rights Conventions and Agreements and of course, being here at CRS, in Canada 6) Canadian Government and NGOs/CSO/academia continue/maintain/increase their support of Afghans in Afghanistan/in the Region and in Canada.
The lives of millions of Afghans is at stake and especially for Iran, our futures are interlinked, and how Iran treats Afghans and Afghan refugees is also a reflection of how Iranians are themselves treated by the Government, and I feel, the aspirations for human rights, freedom and independence, which is strong amongst both Afghans and Iranians, and our CSOs and social movements, cannot be separated from one another. We can be strong and succeed together or continue to live the fraught lives of the present.
I think this is all the time we have now and I look forward to hearing from you all, learning from you and further sharing our experiences and perspectives, in the hope of finding more humane and human rights based ways forward together.
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