‘It’s safe, something we have never had in our lives:’ Afghan rescuee on new life in Canada

By Christy Somos, CTVNews.ca writer

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    GUELPH, Ontario (CTV Network) — A prominent Afghan journalist, one of 4,000 rescuees who escaped to Canada after the Taliban swept back into power, says his new life in Canada with his family is a bittersweet one.

Bilal Sarwary came to Toronto at the beginning of September, telling CTV’s Your Morning on Friday that leaving his life behind in Kabul “was an incredibly painful time.”

“It was an uncertain time, but we are incredibly lucky that we got to Canada where we have been able to cultivate our dreams while here safe with our families, but obviously leaving behind our dreams, our homes, our friends – it has been painful in that sense,” he said.

Reflecting on the image of his family on their evacuation flight out of Kabul, Sarwary said of his newborn daughter, “she is incredibly lucky.”

“She will have the best opportunity, she will be who she wants to be, and I hope one day when she grows up, she could understand the choices that we made for her,” he said. “I think this is the pain and agony of a generation of Afghans who have continued to go through because of the many different conflicts in my country but also in my life.”

Sarwary said he is trying to process everything that has happened since the fall of Kabul this past summer.

“Hopefully from our home in Canada we can continue to give the people of Afghanistan a voice, we will continue to make sure Afghan journalism does not die,” he said. “This is also, for us, a new life in Canada and we will hopefully try to adopt the Canadians ways – which are impressive.”

Sarwary’s journalism career has spanned some of Afghanistan’s most intense moments in the many conflicts that have spanned its history like drone strikes, suicide bombings and U.S. airstrikes – but it was the speed at which Kabul fell that propelled him into action to get his family out of the country.

“The fall of Kabul to the Taliban was extremely sudden, I did not expect that, and I had covered the displacement of civilians from Kunduz province a week before that,” he said. “One of the things that really made me cry was the families telling me they could only have a pair of clothes [sic], this is something that I had been through as a kid – little did I know that this was soon to be my fate and the fate of my family.”

Sarwary said it was an incredibly painful situation to be in, but he had to protect his life and the life of his family after Taliban soldiers began showing up at his home.

“That was probably the worst feeling, hiding in a city I called home, hiding in a city that I knew so well,” he said. “Getting on that Qatari … military plane, I think I cried because looking towards my city, my hometown, I knew that I could not be sure when, if ever, I may be able to come back.”

Asked how his family, including his son, have adjusted to life in Canada, Sarwary joked and said they’re already “addicted to Tim Hortons.”

“Hardly a day passes that my wife and parents don’t go for the steeped tea,” he said. “We’re incredibly lucky that we’re here, we can take walks and it’s safe, something that we have never had in our lives.”

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