From Afghanistan to Ireland: ‘We had no choice. While we were sitting on the plane, everybody was crying’

Twenty-one-year-old Marwa Zamir from Afghanistan is busy and productive, she’s a doer, a worker, a joiner.
She is just back to the family home in Lucan, Co Dublin, after a day at Maynooth University, where she is in third-year law. Her usual bus was cancelled and it was a circuitous route and 1½ hours to get home. But one of the differences with Afghanistan, she says later, is our “good” public transport.
To us, Afghanistan may not have much to recommend it, but her parents were reluctant to leave, having been refugees in neighbouring countries themselves during Afghanistan’s long wars. “They never wanted for us to experience that kind of living abroad or being a refugee because they knew how it affected their education or wellbeing, living without their families.” Her father used to work for the UN. They could have relocated but opted not to.
Eventually, “in 2016, they had no choice, and they had to. There was a bomb blast near my school in Kabul. We couldn’t stop going to school, because my parents really value education.” Ireland was the first country they got a visa for, she says. It was also English-speaking; near the UK, where they have family; and “it wasn’t very busy. It would be easier for us to start a new life.”
Her childhood memories are happy, of a large extended family. Life was lived indoors “because of security”. But every weekend they packed up and went to their holiday home 40km outside Kabul: movies, cooking, games, swimming. “It was a simple life that we had.” That life is gone now. The extended family has scattered.
“While we were sitting on the plane, everybody was crying. I think I was the only one who was excited. Maybe because I understood now that I will be in a society where there wouldn’t be any barriers, going to school would be normal. I can have a career. I can go to college. But my siblings were very young. They were sad about leaving their friends, missing my family back home.”
Her mother and the four children came to Ireland and their father stayed behind.
But he was “forcefully evacuated” in 2021 during the fall of Afghanistan, and moved to England, where he has a charity foundation. They visit often, and he’s “very supportive of every aspect of our life”.
The family spent most of their savings staying in a hotel for two months, then renting a house in Dublin.
When her mother decided they would like to stay in Ireland, they decided to apply for asylum. “My mum just loves Ireland, and we’re just bonded with it. It became part of our identity.”
They were accommodated in direct provision for three years in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, where they went to school. They were granted asylum in late 2019, and were “desperate” to move. The four children tried to find a house to rent, near colleges in the capital. As the oldest, Zamir led the search and the move. It sounds a lot for a teenager. “No it was fun; we were all happy to get out.” They moved to Lucan in January 2022, just before lockdown, when she was 16. Her sister is now also at Maynooth University, and her brothers are in secondary school.
She learned some English watching movies as a child. She also learned Hindi; Bollywood is very popular in Afghanistan. At school in Kabul they studied English but the quality of teaching was poor. She had hardly any English when they arrived here. “I started from zero. When you’re in a position where you have to”, you learn quickly, she says. “You have to come out of your comfort zone. You can’t be shy any more.”
Her mother “knew creating a home in a new society takes a lot of time and it’s hard. She is our support system. I think she’s very brave for what she has done all alone by herself. I think she’s happy what she sacrificed. She’s happy that at least now me and my sister have a normal life. She’s happy for us, because she always wanted to go to college and become a teacher, but she couldn’t, because with so much travelling because of the war, when she was 23 she still didn’t finish school. She got married and all that. She’d never had the chance to have things we do.”
In school “back home, we had tall buildings, guards at the front door. We didn’t have any trips.” School days were shorter, 7-10am. We would start with a prayer, then the national anthem and do probably an essay or a topic. Their teachers would check they were not wearing nail varnish or jewellery.” In Irish schools “it’s different. I think schools are not really strict here. We respect teachers, but back home there’s a different level of respect that students have for teachers. They were more strict on homework, on marking. Here, as long as you pass, teachers are happy with you. I think maths was easy here.” But syllabus content is bigger here, and language teaching here is more effective: “You learn a language properly.”
During summer in lockdown, she joined an Irish Refugee Council youth group, and when she was 18 became a youth leader. “I started liking advocacy. I started joining so, so, so many things. The list is very long!” She’s the youngest member of the UNHCR’s Refugee Advisory Board. She was recently appointed to the Young Ireland advisory council.
She’s in third year of an LLB Bachelor of Laws at Maynooth. “I love human rights and international criminal law, so I would love to do something in this sector.” Legal language was a challenge. “First year was a total disaster. I thought I’m the only one, because English is not my first language. Then I see my Irish friends also struggle. And I’m like, okay, then it’s not me. It’s the legal language.” She made her own English-to-English dictionary, with explanations of words she comes across.
[ My friend phoned from the airport saying ‘the Taliban is on its way. Pack your bags, life has ended for us’Opens in new window ]
She was very proud to be named Law Student of the Year 2024 at the Dye and Durham Irish Law Awards. She describes putting her award on display at home, happy to have one after her brother had won so much.
She occasionally attends EU conferences. “Whenever I’m asked, where are you from? I always say, I’m Afghan-Irish. I represent both countries, and both countries are my identity. I was born in Afghanistan, but Ireland became home.”