In the year 1995 AD, while Afghanistan was engulfed in a civil war and Taliban uprising, my uncle’s family left Afghanistan to go to Iran. Twelve years later, at the age of fourteen, I also left for Iran alone, following events that had happened to me. After two weeks of traveling, when I arrived in Isfahan, I saw my uncle’s family, who had completely changed. Their economic situation seemed to have improved and their children had grown up. When I arrived at my uncle’s house on the outskirts of the city of Falavarjan, after a little rest, my uncle told his son, Sakandar, to take me to Salmani. My hair was long and disheveled.
As Salman was cutting my hair, he asked, “Where are you from, kid?” Before I could say anything, Sakandar said, “He’s from Mashhad.” I was surprised why Sakandar would lie. Salman asked, “Where

The Role of Iranian Media in Demonizing Migrants
However, among the more than two million Afghan migrants in Iran, who are mostly engaged in farming, agriculture, construction work, and other labor-intensive jobs, there is also a significant presence of writers, cultural activists, and poets.
In an annual event called “Meeting of Poets with the Leader of the Revolution,” one or two poets from among the Afghan poets residing in Iran are invited and usually receive encouragement from the leader of the Islamic Republic.
Sorour Ahmad is an Afghan writer and poet who resides in Iran and has studied Persian literature at Shahid Beheshti University. Ahmad says that the dominant view in Iranian society towards Afghan migrants is that they are an illiterate, smuggler, killer, child thief, dirty, and always homeless community, and Iranian media has played a prominent role in creating such an ugly and derogatory view. Ahmad adds that Iranian media covers some of the crimes committed by Afghan migrants with special exaggeration and