Omar Haidari

Transition

She said: You’re so lucky, you have done so well so far. I am so proud of you.

In despair, I cried for every single moment of my life that had been lost. Not discontinued, but wasted. Vast, formative parts of my youth and childhood that I can no longer describe because you, my listeners, have never been anywhere near it, and without your experience and your existence it will not make much sense.

She said: Many did not make it through, you were so strong and successful to achieve it, as you used to be back here, always we feel proud of offering you to this globe. You are as beautiful as the “Kabul” before the Jihad.

“Many did not make it through”. “Many” were lives, not numbers. Their hopes were betrayed before receiving what they had already paid for, their “European dream”. Either the cruel border wire ate them or the wild ocean drowned them.

This journey functions as “Jihad” for us.

Installation and Photographs, 2018