Women’s advocate, midwife, refugee: meet Ghent’s student of the year
Arzoo Bahramand fled Afghanistan in fear of her life six years ago and is now about to qualify as a midwife. The City of Ghent has just rewarded her for her resilience in the face of adversity
Lessons in life
Earlier this summer, the City of Ghent elected its Student of the Year for the 13th time, a student at a Ghent university or university college who not only excels in their studies but also makes extra efforts to improve their education institution and Ghent’s society in general.
Bahramand (pictured), who gained her Bachelor’s degree in midwifery at Artevelde University College, was praised for her resilience in the face of exceptional adversity.
Before fleeing to Belgium, Bahramand was working as an assistant gynaecologist at a hospital in Afghanistan and strove to familiarise other medical workers with contraception. “The mortality rate among mothers is high in Afghanistan because there is too little time between pregnancies,” she explains. “I felt it was important to help women by training doctors and nurses about the advantages of condoms and the pill and so on, which can also improve women’s social position.”
Safety abroad
Between 2006 and 2010, she worked without any trouble for the Afghan Family Guidance Association. But then she started to receive disturbing phone calls.
“Unknown people called me and ordered me to stop my work on raising awareness about contraception, because it goes against Islam,” she says. “But I know very well, and I have showed many other doctors, that birth control is considered natural in the Koran.”
Bahramand didn’t let herself be scared off, until she had what she thought was a car accident. “I was driving in my small rickshaw when a bigger car came out of nowhere and drove me off the road,” she says. She came out with only minor injuries, but the biggest shock was still to come. “Somebody called me to say that this time I had been lucky, but the next time they would kill me for sure.”
Somebody called me to say that this time I had been lucky, but the next time they would kill me for sure
To this day, she doesn’t know who threatened her, but she suspects it was an Islamic fundamentalist political movement like the Taliban. The police couldn’t help, so she and her husband decided they had to seek safety abroad. Smugglers brought her and her four children, one of them just five months old, to Brussels in June 2010. She stood in unknown streets, knowing only that she had to find the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons.
There were ups and downs, but Bahramand got her life in Flanders on track. She was granted refugee status, was given residence in an asylum centre in Ghent and started to learn Dutch. In 2011, her husband, Homayan, joined her. Though he is trained as a doctor, he decided to work in a night shop, giving his wife the chance to study again. As her diploma from Afghanistan wasn’t accepted here, she had to study again for three years to get her degree.
“Those first weeks at university college, I almost gave up because of the language barrier, but my fellow students helped me persevere,” she says. The school also provided her with extra support by giving her more time to do her exams and being flexible about her participation in practical lessons.
Respect and tolerance
Gradually, she became more self-confident, and during her internships her experience benefited her fellow students. “I told them not to panic in the first days in the hospitals, as I know you quickly get used to the challenges there,” she says.
Bahramand herself had to get used to the kind of medical tools used in Flemish hospitals, which are often different to those in Afghanistan, as well as the different needs of patients here. “Flemish patients tend to be more highly educated, so they often demand more explanation than those in Afghanistan do,” she explains.
She now just has one more internship to do, in August, before she can become a midwife. Her plan is then to search for a job, preferably in a hospital in Ghent. “My dream is still to become a gynaecologist, the profession I was working towards in Afghanistan, but that is perhaps something for the future,” she says.
She also wants to tell her story to pupils in Flemish secondary schools, to enlighten them about why people migrate.
“Many youngsters are afraid and have negative feelings about immigrants because of the refugee crisis and the terrorist attacks,” says Bahramand. “I want them to know that there are terrorist attacks against Muslims on a daily basis in Afghanistan, and convince them of the need for respect and tolerance."
Photo courtesy Artevelde University College
