Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts

Jan 27, 2009

At Berlin Tegel Prison

The title may a little surprise you. You may ask yourself, what happened to Nasim that he ended up prison in Berlin. Maybe you will think that he is suspected of something because he comes from a country that provides 95% of opium to the world, and plus, there is a war going on.

I am in Kabul now, this post had to be posted already, but it was missing somewhere my computer. I was invited by the GTZ as a photographer for a photography workshop on November 7 to 14. There were six other photographers from other countries; Jodi Bieber from South Africa, Dörthe Boxberg from Germany, Stefan Erber from Germany, Elena Koktanek from Germany, Michael Tsegaye from Ethiopia, Leonel Vasquez from Colombia and two workshop leaders: Ralf Bäcker and Jörn Neumann from Germany.

Before going to the workshop in Berlin I had been in Italy where i received my freedom of expression award from Information Safety and Freedom (ISF) in Siena.
The workshop subject was “Developing security and security development” the central theme of for 2009 of the GTZ. For one day I was shooting in the main Berlin prison “Justizvollzugsanstalt Tegel”, which contains 1580 prisoners from 62 countries right now. Around 32% of them are foreigners.

It was early morning, when we arrived at the prison. The security guards at the main gate got our passports and in return a coarse card, not easy to bend, was given to us and we were demanded to not lose it, otherwise we couldn’t get out of the prison afterwards.

The doors and windows are built out of rigid steel and concrete structures, strong glasses are used for the windows and soundproofed rooms. Inside the control room are many monitors that show the area where the staff and prisoners are moving around. A burly security man suited in a dark blue suit, with written on his arm and back “Justiz” guided us around inside the prison. We were told not to photograph the prisoners or security guards, nor locks and keys. And we had to empty our pockets from money and electronic devices.

The buildings inside are surrounded by a barbed wire fence and in each corner cameras are controlling your steps. We were given two hours inside the prison, by the security guard who was with us. Me and my German colleague Elena definitely had to be clever to use our time as well as possible. Elena was excited to see the inside of the prison, me too. It was very important for me to see the prison in Berlin and to compare it to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul. It's a large prison in Afghanistan. I visited Pul-e-Charkhi prison and remember pretty well how horrible it was.

Now, I found myself in the biggest prison in Germany. I was looking for the meaning of Sicherheit inside the prison, in the Berlin streets, in the city with its skyscrapers and well dressed people with luxurious cars moving and people 'petting' with their best friends, which is not normal in Afghanistan and other Islamic states.

I had to find out now what Sicherheit means in this country, for the Berliners, for the people who work and earn money to live, for those who hope to have a shelter where to spend the night, for the many who survive.

This time Berlin became very interesting for me, but how to figure out its looks? I like this city, but how can I find myself if I would live there for a day? With this workshop I learned a lot, and also from the people who I met in the streets, at their work, and also the beggars who smiled at us.

The 44 years old security guard Rafael Galejew, who originally comes from Georgia, accompanied us. He works in the Justizvollzugsanstalt Tegel prison since 1994. Rafael carried a bunch of large keys. One was bigger than the others and I joked by calling it “the king key”. Yes it was a real special one, because he could open any door with it.

Entering the first building of the prison, and looking up to the walls painted yellow doesn’t give a sense of being be happy. "But for a prisoner" said Rafel, "yellow is a happy color". Doors are numbered together with their prisoner names. The stairs, door, and windows are netted with steel girders. While I tried to take pictures Rafael told me to not picture the prisoners. To have him trust me I showed my pictures to him every now and then and told him to do so as well after our tour. That made him happy and he told me he trusted me.

Time was running and we had to go to the next building, moving from the short term punishment prison to the lifelong imprisonments building. The 8 floors building contains over 300 prisoners who committed murder or similar crimes.

Another security guard joined us when we came on the fifth floor. We entered a cell of 2x3 meters wide, with a bed, tv, tape recorder, a toilet and lots of pictures of family, children, and relatives hanging on the wall of the prisoner who himself is outside and waving to us. But we can’t respond to him nor take pictures because we had been asked not to talk or get close to the prisoners.

In the entry hall of the building hangs a picture of a priest, the writings on it say that he was killed by the Nazis. Rafael commented, "The Nazis were the enemy of human kind, not only Jews."
I asked Rafael if there are any Afghans in the prison, and he told me that a couple of years ago there were a few, but now they are all released.

They have special meals for the Muslim prisoners, and however, "since 2000 the numbers of prisoners are decreasing" as Rafael described.

The reason for being in the prison and to look for the word of “Sicherheit” was because in the German concept, Sicherheit has no specific meaning. Many use it as 'security' and 'safety' which are not right translations in German.
As photographers from various backgrounds, but all coming from post-war countries, we had to find out the meaning of security in Berlin, where I don’t see police, or military convoys in the streets.

So, what does security really mean for Berliners here? But it is the question and the theme of our workshop photography.
We had to explore the city to find the meaning of security in the German context among Berliners and foreigners living in Berlin.
It was very interesting hearing the meaning of security in so different ways. For some, security is about money, or trust, love, or sex, profession, or travel, while for others it means to find shelter, to be safe.

Dec 14, 2008

Why I am the Freedom of Expression Award Winner?

I had to write and publish this piece sooner but I couldn't because of hectic schedule. Now, I have to tell you to everyone why I became an award winner for the freedom of expression by ISF (Information Safety and Freedom) in Siana, Italy.

On Friday morning, November 28 in Siena, in Tuscany region, the award for the freedom of expression given to two Afghan journalists. I also got Kambakhsh's award. It was painful for me to receive my award while the other winner Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh is still in prison only for reading an article in the internet.

Many of you may ask me that why you became the award winner while there were many journalists who were fighting for the freedom of speech, even some of them lost their lives, some of them exiled and some of them beaten and harassed by local warlords and drug lords. I am awarded because my satire/cartoon magazine was shot down in 2004, I am awarded because I got several death threats and exiled for seven months. I am award for my hard work on developing and teaching Blogging and online journalism in my country.
I have been running many workshops for teaching blogging in different cities.

Beside this I made an electronic online newspaper “Afghan Press” in two languages, Dari (farsi) and English, we are trying to get funds and hire a few journalist to write for us. The main idea is to provide a “narration from inside” about culture, media, politics, political parties, economics, and higher educations for whom are wise and interested in Afghanistan’s affairs, and especially local compatriots.

Simultaneously i built up the Association of Afghan Blog Writers in two languages which now it changed to a powerful online community of Afghan young bloggers, they share ideas and discus situation inside the county. These were the works and beside this I had to work to feed myself and my family.As a freelancer I sold photos to AP, wrote for BBC, Pajamasmedia.org, NATO, UNAMA and local papers in Kabul. My efforts were a give a better image from my country out to the world. Blogging was my plan to teach to young people in the Universities, schools, institutes and journalists. Blogging is important for me because I believe this is the only way we can tell our story to the world. Presenting Afghanistan through blog world is a job for new generation, not for those were involved in war, for those who were involved in massacres, those who plant opium but the new generation that can tell to the world the reality of what happening in their country.

I dedicate this award to my fellow journalists in Afghanistan; I dedicate this award to those journalists who lost their lives fighting for freedom of speech, to Shaima Rezayee, Abdul Samad Rohani, Shekiba Sanga Amaaj, Zakia Zaki and Ajmal Naqshbandi.This award not only belongs to me but to my people, to Pashtun, Tajek, Hazara and Uzbek. This award belongs to my country, to my entire countryman especially for those journalists whom were jailed, harassed, and exiled. This award is belongs to Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh who is in prison now, he was convicted to death but later reduced to 20 years in prison. Right now, he is in one cell with four criminals and murders, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh is teaching them literacy how to read and write.

Interview with Pino Scaccia from TG1
This award belongs to journalists and writers of my country who can’t bring out their voice in public, for those who are isolated. This award belongs to those families who lost a member, to the children who lost their fathers. This award belongs to those journalists who don’t have enough to eat but can’t stop writing the truth.

I dedicate this award to my fellow bloggers, journalists and writers in Iran who are in prison now and some of them are sentenced to death only because of telling the truth to others.

This is an alert to Karzai's government which appointed Abdul Karim Khoram an ex-member of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar party in the Ministry of Information and Culture who said to media "freedom of speech is a western product and it is meaningless in Afghan society." This award is a warning to irresponsibility of foreign countries that apparently support but don’t look after where the money goes.

This award by ISF is an alert to those organizations and institutes who are working for the freedom of speech but they are not aware that journalists are receiving threats from different channels, like religious parties, fanatic fundamentalist figures, political parties, warlords, drug lords and Karzai government authorities. This is an alert to them to accelerate their efforts for supporting freedom of expression in Afghanistan which is in danger now.

And finally this award by ISF is encouragement for me and for my fellow journalist in my country to fight for freedom of expression. This award means I have to continue my works in the future.

I salute to freedom of expression, I salute those to thinks and says freely and support freedom.

Related materials:
Afghan Journalists Awarded for their hard work towards free speech
Free Kambakhsh!
Eventi a cui ha partecipato Nasim Fekrat - Audio
Nasim in Val di Susa
Una mattina a Siena per la libertà in Afghanistan- Video+picture
Tactic: Afghan blogger wins free speech award

Nov 23, 2008

Meeting Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh in Prison

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It is not easy to meet Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh in prison. He is condemned because of blasphemy and any one who dares to meet him, has the perspective of being questioned or followed by police man, inside the prison. "Visitors who are visiting Kambakhsh will be followed by police because they are controlling Kambakhsh's relations outside of the prison". I was already told that by a friend of mine, who is a police officer.

It was almost 11:00AM, at least one hour left to meet the prisoners; I had to meet Parwiz Kambakhsh to let him know that he is the winner of the Freedom of Expression award in Italy. Standing in line for minutes where hundreds of people waited just the same to meet their relatives, imprisoned. At the gate of the prison a police man with a board marker signed visitor's hands, next door the visitors have to deliver their mobiles phones and knives. Before approaching the meeting room for the prisoners, there are two check points, one where stamps were put on the visitors hands and the last one is the control to make sure the visitor doesn't carry something that can be dangerous or suspicious. My right hand was signed by a big marker and stamped at the last check point before entering into the prison.

The salon is terribly noisy, you can't hear even your own voice. Visitors are shouting to the prisoners and prisoners shout to visitors. The guy who called the prisoners is called "Jarchi" (Farsi). It was the second time I asked him to call Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, and then immediately he appeared. I waved to him and went a step closer behind the bars but the reticulated wall of metals didn't allow me to touch his fingers.

He seemed disappointed and desperately waved at me. Only for a few seconds I got closer to him, closer to hear him, which was difficult because of the noise. Suddenly my left shoulder was pulled back roughly and I saw two policemen who asked me what I was telling to Kambakhsh.

The police men didn't allow me to get closer to him anymore. But I had a chance to tell Mr.Kambakhsh about the prize, that he become a winner by the Information Safety and Freedom award (ISF) in Italy. He expressed his feeling to be happy to hear that, but the final words I heard from him were: "I need help to get out of the prison."

The police men didn't give me another chance to talk with him anymore, so I waved to him and promised to spread his message outside.

The Italian version already published here.