There is no school for girls: Afghans who fled to Pakistan sent back to a homeland that is foreign to many

Afghan refugees arrive with their belongings on trucks from Pakistan at the Afghanistan-Pakistan Torkham border on November 1, 2023.

Earlier this week Nasim was leaving the only home he’s ever known, trudging toward Pakistan’s border alongside tens of thousands of fellow Afghan refugees who like him have been given a deadline to depart the country.

“I was born in Pakistan, I’ve lived here for 42 years, I went to school in Pakistan,” said Nasim, who had traveled to the Torkham border crossing from the northern city Peshawar. “I’ve never been to Afghanistan.”

In a move that has upturned countless lives, Pakistan ordered

...as the walls close in, have left Bahand too afraid to sleep.“I am ashamed, what kind of man am I that I can’t help my family?” he said, visibly emotional. “I die every minute … My fault is that I’m a human? That I’m an Afghan, that I’m a journalist?”