0:04

And

0:05

one story that always kind of captures my

0:07

generation. And you're

0:10

listening to carnival, and

0:13

you're listening to Kerning cultures. Before

0:20

we start, there's strong language and mentions

0:22

of sexual assault in this episode. If

0:24

you're around kids or would rather not

0:26

hear that, consider skipping this one.

0:48

The football champions league semifinal in

0:50

twenty fifteen was a huge game.

0:52

Barcelona versus Bayer in Munich.

0:55

Millions of fans were tuning in from around

0:57

the world. In the stadium, the

0:59

pitch was dry, the night was clear, and

1:01

the seats were full. It

1:07

was an evening game, seven forty five

1:09

PM kickoff in Barcelona. And

1:12

both teams were giving it their all.

1:14

There were plenty of fouls and yellow

1:16

cards during the first half, but forty

1:18

five minutes in still zero

1:20

zero. Barcelona fans were

1:22

depending on their team's leader, Lionel Messi,

1:25

to get the team to the semifinals. One

1:28

person hoping for Messi to make a move was

1:30

teenagers sitting in Kabul, Afghanistan. It

1:33

was midnight his time, and he was watching in

1:35

secret on his family TV in the kitchen.

1:38

But I used to say, I couldn't

1:41

say.

1:45

Yeah, I don't know his surname, and my

1:47

parents now allowed me to watch football. They

1:49

hate football and sport, not just football

1:52

and sport. With all four of sleep, I just

1:54

go and take the TV. And

1:57

then when they find that in the morning, they just start

1:59

shouting. I did this again. I don't

2:01

know. I just didn't. I

2:05

know it's weird, but when I was football, like,

2:07

I feel kinda itchiness in my

2:09

legs. Like, because

2:11

I just want to go and join and play,

2:13

and it's just a feelings, you know, like, you

2:15

just enjoy. Sometimes I get emotional

2:17

for people, like, I wanna play.

2:20

It was Nel Nels in

2:22

Missy School. I'm

2:29

so sorry. I think I was so happy. My

2:31

dad came out like, what's going on? Oh, no. Nothing.

2:34

Faking cold. Maybe it's cold.

2:43

More shouting. Mom, dad comes

2:45

live. Why are you shouting? What happened? I was like, it's a

2:47

mouth say anything

2:49

else. But

2:51

he I think he knows that. That's

2:53

the reason. That's a lot so happy.

2:59

This was Messi's seventy seventh goal in

3:01

the Champions League, making him the all

3:03

time highest scoring player in the

3:05

competition. And in Afghanistan,

3:08

Messi was this kid's hero. You

3:11

know, like, people when they prayed, they wanna

3:13

go to Johannes. I

3:16

wanna go to Jenna. Sorry.

3:20

Like, I wanna go to Jenna. I wanna do

3:22

the I wanna do that. I wanna

3:24

be a doctor. I want to be a junior. All

3:26

the time, there's one thing. I

3:29

wanna be a footballer. All

3:32

the time when I pray and I just do this do off,

3:34

I wanna be a football. And every time, like,

3:36

when I was going to sleep and I'm like oh,

3:39

I'm going to play football in a professional team.

3:42

And they gave me the first game in the last

3:44

minute, and I'm going I'm scoring the free kick,

3:46

I'm giving a pun in the Oh, just dreams.

3:48

Make it all the time. I don't know why. When

3:52

I play football, I forgot everything. Like, I'm

3:54

not in this world. I'm somewhere else.

3:57

Like, I don't care about anything else. Like,

3:59

the only thing that I

4:01

think about is my game

4:03

that I want to win and I want to school.

4:06

That's the only thing. Like, I

4:08

forgot that I have family. I forgot

4:10

that I'm in which country. I

4:12

forgot where I'm going or

4:14

what's gonna happen to me. And Sanofi

4:17

football is the only thing that makes me happy.

4:20

Four years after that game, which by

4:22

Solona 1 the way, This young

4:24

football soccer obsessed

4:27

kid had a dream to be the next

4:29

lionel Messi. But his reality

4:31

would be so completely

4:33

distant from that dream. It'd

4:36

be hundreds of miles from the comfort of that

4:38

television in the corner of his parents' kitchen.

4:40

Making his way through the dangerous smugglers

4:43

network that flows from Afghanistan

4:45

to Europe. We're

4:49

gonna try something new with this series.

4:51

Over the next four episodes, we'll be following

4:53

Aizen journey from a cabo prison

4:55

complex through snowy mountain

4:57

passages in Iran to

4:59

dingy detention centers in Europe.

5:02

This is part one. I hate

5:04

Wednesdays. This

5:07

story comes to us from producer, Al

5:09

Sheibani.

5:11

Hi. This is Al. I'd

5:14

like to introduce you to someone very

5:16

close to my heart. We met two

5:18

years ago and since then he's

5:20

become like family to me. But we'll get

5:22

into how we met later on. In

5:25

the time I've known him, he would say things

5:27

that would puzzle me like I hate

5:29

Wednesdays or I am the most

5:31

unlucky person in the world. From

5:34

these, I would gather bits and pieces of his

5:36

past. Some of them would make me

5:38

laugh and some of them would film me with despair.

5:41

Sometime around eight months ago, we

5:43

started to sit down with a microphone to

5:45

record his story. In part for

5:47

this podcast, but also to share

5:49

it with him before he forgets the details.

5:52

I'm going to keep his name anonymous to

5:54

protect his identity. So instead,

5:56

we'll use a pseudonym. Like

5:59

a fake name? Yeah. Okay.

6:02

Aizen. Eisen.

6:04

Yeah. Okay.

6:05

Eisen. It's an

6:07

anime name, but also people I

6:09

think people use it.

6:10

Who's the Aizen character?

6:14

He is Actually, I have villain.

6:17

Okay. But we have a good

6:19

IQ. Okay. So you like him because he has a

6:21

good eye. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Miss

6:23

mastermind. Miss Plumbing is

6:26

Like a lot of teenagers, Aizen

6:28

is obsessed with anime. In

6:30

fact, when we were sitting down to record this,

6:33

He was wearing a t shirt with another one

6:35

of his favorite anime characters. Aizen

6:38

was born in Kundas in Northern

6:40

Afghanistan. But a few years later

6:42

his family moved to the capital

6:43

Kabul, specifically to

6:45

a neighborhood called Iikatut. But

6:49

the school was like so far.

6:51

Like, it was around one and a half hour Kerning,

6:54

but I was a kid. Now

6:56

when I remember sometimes, you know, like, when

6:58

I get a bit older and I see, I was

7:00

like, how I worked. How do we?

7:03

Well, when your kitty walks, slowly kicking

7:05

everything in the

7:05

crowd. Just go walk. Aizen

7:09

doesn't come from a wealthy family. His

7:11

dad who was already in his late sixties

7:14

is a taxi driver and work was

7:16

never consistent. That's also

7:18

why the family didn't live in central

7:20

Kabul. As a kid,

7:22

Aizen remembers a lot of fields in the area he grew

7:24

up in, fields where he would

7:26

go and look for farming work. My

7:29

father car was broke,

7:32

so he was making his car

7:34

and we don't have anything for two days.

7:37

So he was fixing his car and was nothing to

7:39

eat and my father mother

7:41

was pregnant. You know, I had always

7:43

the feeling to work and find money, but I

7:45

was not able to do a lot of

7:46

things. So

7:48

So you're harvesting. Yeah. You

7:51

too. I too. We call it

7:53

Gandara. I don't know what you call it. It

7:55

looks like

7:56

onions. May I know it's spring onion? Yeah.

7:58

Chiefs. Chiefs. Chiefs.

8:01

He pulled up his phone and

8:03

opened up Google Maps. To show me satellite

8:05

images of the

8:06

area, Bay Square houses

8:08

and big greenfields. You

8:11

see this parking that was our school.

8:14

Okay. It was like no rooms,

8:16

nothing, just small tent.

8:18

You know this, we live in

8:20

here. On the

8:22

first, when we arrived, there was

8:25

no place. There was all grounds

8:27

like this. This is chief

8:29

chives, chives, all of this

8:35

Okay. I work for three,

8:37

four or, like, at least five hours.

8:39

And they give me three things

8:41

of these chips, two

8:43

sharp knives. Tives. For

8:49

that work, he got paid twenty of

8:51

gannies. That's the local currency,

8:53

which he used to buy two pieces

8:55

of bread. He took those back to

8:57

his mom with the chives so she

8:59

can prepare dinner. When his dad

9:01

came home and saw

9:02

this, he started crying. I always

9:04

don't care about myself like. I just care about

9:06

my family. No. I don't

9:08

care about mom and dad as well. Just

9:10

my sisters and brother.

9:12

Yeah. Because I know that my

9:14

moment that didn't give me a life

9:16

that I wanted,

9:19

but I always say, Hamilah, but

9:21

I want him them to have a good life.

9:24

Mhmm. I never did

9:26

whom I'm saying I'm being

9:28

honest. I never did homework. Good.

9:30

I don't like doing it. Like writing, It

9:32

was not something for me. In

9:34

the class, only thing I was waiting for

9:36

all the

9:36

time, but the thought lesson that we can go

9:38

and play a bit more. Of

9:41

course. That was life

9:44

in Kabul. Going to school,

9:46

hating homework, playing football

9:48

at every opportunity. Eisen has

9:50

four siblings, three younger sisters,

9:52

and one younger brother. He's the

9:54

eldest. And as for

9:56

his parents, he told me they were very

9:58

strict. His dad was very religious

10:00

and his mom was angry all

10:02

the time. His cool friends were scared of

10:04

her. There's

10:07

something else he should know about Aizen. The

10:10

way he looks is unlike

10:12

any afghan I've ever met.

10:14

He's about my height six feet

10:16

with freckled white skin, green

10:18

gray eyes, and strawberry

10:20

blonde hair. When he speaks or

10:22

smiles, he beams a wide string

10:24

of pearly teeth. But

10:26

otherwise, he looks very stern.

10:28

His piercing eyes are intimidating.

10:31

He's a little lanky and a lot good

10:33

looking. All

10:35

that to say, he looks different, which

10:37

is a blessing and a curse for

10:39

Isaac. He

10:40

remembers an incident back in Kabul

10:43

when he was walking home from school.

10:45

The corps of Unisys, with

10:48

some soldiers, They stop in front of

10:50

me. I will, like, shock what's going on.

10:52

They come and, like, what do you do in the state? But I

10:54

will know they would be speaking. I would, like,

10:56

I didn't sign. Didn't they they

10:58

call the translator. They translate them. They translate them.

11:00

They translate me. What are you doing here?

11:02

I said, whatever now I'm going

11:04

home, I just finished my class. They

11:06

were

11:06

they asked him that we were in front of him, let him from

11:09

here. The American soldier

11:11

then patted him on the head and

11:13

told him Take

11:14

care. We don't want anyone to attend you

11:17

because you look like us.

11:19

You know, I could be. Thank you.

11:22

And also, when I

11:24

was kid like so, like so

11:26

small, like two years old, three years

11:28

old, I was with my mom,

11:30

uncle, the Americans and stop him and say

11:32

that you still you still some

11:34

American child or what? You still see

11:36

this from me or who is this child and be like, no.

11:38

It's my own Yeah.

11:41

And they were like, no. No. But then

11:43

they asked a lot and started saying, okay.

11:45

Okay. I'm a I was a weak

11:47

lady. I don't get that. Friends

11:51

in Kabul used to call him El Ruxi,

11:54

which means the Russian because of the way

11:56

he looks. No one else in his

11:58

family is blonde or has such

12:00

fair features. For

12:06

a kid in Afghanistan around this

12:08

time, twenty sixteen, twenty

12:10

seventeen, twenty eighteen,

12:13

life in Kabul meant growing up around

12:15

violence. Carole is still

12:17

reeling from shock a day after

12:19

a suicide bomb attack, killed

12:21

more than a hundred people, and

12:23

wounded at least two hundred you

12:25

follow your

12:25

pharmics, blooded inside a mosque, and cobble.

12:28

At least twenty one people learned that it

12:30

doesn't work on a peaceful desk. We

12:32

now know that more than sixty people

12:34

were killed and more than a two hundred

12:37

wounded and the terror group's media wing says

12:39

that two fighters basically detonated

12:41

their suicide

12:41

belt. At a shiite

12:44

gallery. So basically,

12:46

Kalalimatan, we live in Kalalimatan.

12:48

It was attack always in

12:50

here, always like every

12:52

time, people

12:55

die, a lot of people die,

12:57

remote, but nobody

12:59

cares. Nobody.

13:03

Well, I remember all of them that clearly,

13:06

1 a huge explosion that a

13:08

lot of people died happened

13:10

when I was eleven,

13:13

twelve, something. And

13:15

I was going to stay in Milan in a

13:17

far place like I walk around one

13:19

house, work work work work

13:21

work to go to the was

13:23

a lady who teaching us. We paid for her and

13:25

she teaches in a

13:26

madrasa or a no. She was teaching

13:29

in her house. She was Harry.

13:31

She was so good in teaching. I

13:33

was coming from we go early morning and

13:35

I come back and

13:37

the explosion happened. Boom.

13:40

It was, like, it was so close to

13:42

me. I didn't see if I must have happened,

13:44

but there was the sound was so close like this.

13:46

It was shaking everything. And I was

13:48

not able to go to mother's apartment or, like,

13:50

I don't want to go but no mother's apartment.

13:52

Go. But I was scared. Explosion

13:56

is like happening once a

13:59

week. Yeah. Sometimes in one day, three,

14:01

four times. So yeah,

14:03

like I see like this is stuff a lot.

14:06

Like a lot. You hear it and you also

14:08

see it. Yeah. Yeah. It happened when the near to

14:10

our car. Near to your car. Yeah. I our

14:12

car get damaged. This is

14:14

roads, but

14:15

you're in the not your father's car. Yeah. But

14:17

nobody can help. You're all farming in the

14:19

car. It was so

14:21

close, like, so so close.

14:25

Aizen eventually finished school and actually

14:27

graduated high school at fifteen.

14:30

He was always top of his class,

14:32

so he skipped some academic years.

14:34

At first, the exam board refused to

14:36

give him his high school diploma because he was

14:38

too young. But after

14:40

a lot of back and forth and some

14:42

money, he got it and started

14:44

working. A distant relative offered

14:46

him a job at their travel agency,

14:48

running errands. He

14:49

told me to drive the car. Though even though

14:52

he had to drive and I was only fifteen, I

14:54

started driving the car for him to

14:56

do much. Do

14:58

stuff, buy stuff for his home,

15:01

take his children to a school.

15:03

Sometimes I had, like, kind of ten

15:05

thousand dollars in my bag

15:07

from this company. Always

15:09

I was thinking if I lose this money, I'm

15:12

done. Yeah. I just lost the

15:14

money. I lost the car. When

15:17

they actually found me

15:19

to a wedding party, I

15:21

remember that I needed to do some job. I took the

15:23

car and I

15:26

went to do the job and it was

15:28

independent city of Afghanistan. So

15:30

the street was closed. I turned back and

15:32

my friend called me, say, oh, let's go to

15:35

eat something and go take a shower and come back. We

15:37

have like her mom's. I was like, okay.

15:39

I think the car and we go eat,

15:42

we we would after eating, we went to take

15:44

shower. I parked the car. I said to the

15:46

person, look at the car because we know

15:48

that people still cars look

15:50

at it a car. I'm coming back in five minutes.

15:53

I spent four minutes in my hands on,

15:55

like, I need to go and check I

15:57

didn't even draw myself with the towel and stuff.

15:59

I just kicked the car first. No

16:01

car. I was shaking.

16:04

I lost a car which were twelve

16:06

thousand dollars. This

16:08

car, a two thousand six Toyota

16:11

Corolla, which belonged to the company he

16:13

was working for, was

16:14

gone. Aizen called the police

16:17

to file a report, thinking they would find

16:19

it. The police come to

16:21

the police station want

16:23

to replace it with my own feet. So,

16:25

okay. They complain that you steal

16:27

the car in second crime,

16:30

illegally dry.

16:32

Even though he was only fifteen.

16:35

No one had stopped him while he was driving

16:37

around Kabul. He said no one

16:39

thought to question his age because he had

16:41

a beard at the time. A soft

16:43

one 1 a beard nonetheless. Now,

16:45

the car he was driving was co owned by

16:47

two people. Aizen boss

16:49

and another guy. In this

16:52

case, the other guy filed a complaint

16:54

against Aizen and accused him of

16:56

stealing the

16:56

car. Yeah. I spent six hours in

16:58

station. They make everything like this. Look, everything is clear

17:00

and it's done. Take it. They take me in the car.

17:03

About two percent. So I went to the

17:05

children prison a

17:08

really weird place. It's

17:10

dirty. You don't have access. I I

17:12

totally don't have you don't have access

17:14

to phone. You don't have anything.

17:16

They give you food two times a day,

17:18

which is totally rubbish. So

17:20

you know I was scared, but I see the guy

17:22

who was similar to my age. Some

17:24

of them were but they pretend to be younger. But

17:26

in Afghanistan, you know, nobody cares

17:28

actually for these things. I

17:30

asked Isan what kind of crimes these kids were

17:32

being held for? He said some

17:34

of them were caught selling drugs. Others

17:37

were accused of being suicide bombers.

17:40

He mentioned how many of them were from

17:42

the countryside. Children that have no

17:44

education and were charged for

17:46

being terrorists. Either

17:48

because they simply had a long beard,

17:50

or because a phone call to someone in

17:52

the Taliban was traced back to their

17:54

phone. As been seven days, they

17:57

took me to to the doctor to take

17:59

my age. And I had my

18:01

document like my tusker. Let's see that

18:03

I'm fifteen. Yeah. Like, I was

18:05

turning sixteen in a few months. Nobody

18:08

they absolutely totally say that no. We don't

18:10

believe in this in his

18:12

ID. And the tip

18:14

that we call it separately, they play the resting age.

18:16

They say he's eighteen. They just

18:18

you know how bad they check, the

18:20

doctor, they check your penis,

18:22

Okay? They just look to your penis, they take a

18:25

picture of your hand to see you

18:27

go, and they send the result. And they take

18:29

me from children prison to the older

18:31

people

18:31

prison. He found out later that it was the

18:34

other owner of the car who paid off

18:36

the officials to do this botched

18:38

age test and claimed that he's

18:40

actually eighteen. And

18:42

so, Aizen was transferred from

18:44

juvenile detention to adult

18:46

Aizen, all because of this accusation

18:48

that he'd stolen his boss's car.

18:50

I went there in my first night. There's

18:52

a lot of people who drug do drugs

18:54

and stuff, and also some people

18:56

who are kinda petrified.

18:59

What do you call it? Petrophie,

19:01

petrophie, petrophie, petrophie, petrophie, petrophie,

19:03

petrophie, petrophie, petrophie,

19:07

petrophie, petrophie, petrophie, petrophie, think of

19:09

Batcha Batcha Batcha Batcha Batcha

19:11

Batcha Batcha Batcha Batcha

19:13

Batchy. It's a Persian

19:16

phrase that literally translates

19:18

to boy play. And it

19:20

refers to this custom where older

19:22

men would have young boys dance

19:24

for them. Usually dressed up and with makeup

19:26

on, and would often sexually

19:28

abuse them too. It's another

19:30

name for sexual slavery or

19:32

pedophilia.

19:33

I was scared. Like, it was my first time in a

19:35

place like this. So I went I ran 1

19:38

come to my room, another seat come to my

19:40

room. This room

19:42

was huge. Fifty five, fifty six significant

19:44

to each other. Okay.

19:46

That was different

19:48

Aizen. Different ages. Forty

19:50

five, fifty six, eighty,

19:52

twenty, ninety, but

19:55

all up at the I was the only kid in

19:57

this place. We have

20:03

kind of boss in the prison, boss

20:05

of prisoners. He saw

20:07

me and he said, come with me. He

20:09

he he he asked me, how old are you?

20:11

I was like, sixty. He

20:13

take me to a group and said, I said, you sleep

20:15

here. I'm like, okay. He was kind of

20:17

a nice then

20:20

I made another gun, one who was

20:22

both of him. He was from

20:24

Iran. He

20:26

killed people in Iran because a fight they had,

20:28

like, a kind of family fight. He

20:30

was huge, muscles,

20:32

tattoos. I

20:34

was scared. Yeah. He had, like, a really weird tattoos

20:36

in his body. All of his body

20:38

was with tattoos. He was, like,

20:41

actually, Yeah. He looks like

20:43

actual criminals. Like

20:45

his muscles was bigger than my

20:47

boss. Wow. In

20:49

I was scared of him. He looks so scary.

20:51

But he was so nice. Like, this guy was so

20:54

nice. And he had five, six phones that

20:56

everybody can give him fifty afghanist.

20:58

They give me a good quote. When

21:10

I was in

21:13

prison, I started writing PU3PU3,

21:15

what you call

21:15

it, however. Yeah. I was so good. Like, mom, I worked

21:17

and I write everything Plashteau and

21:20

Dairy poetry. When I asked him

21:22

what kind of things he was writing poetry about,

21:25

he said, I don't know. Just

21:27

normal things like friendship,

21:29

love, Farhat, the character

21:31

from Farce folklore. He

21:33

was sad and remembered the poetry he

21:36

learned in school from

21:38

poets like Happez and

21:39

Nozami. So he say, okay, what you're

21:42

writing every time I see you? I was

21:44

like, I'm writing this. You say, treat for

21:46

me. Because he was the boss, and you cannot say

21:48

no to him. I read he was like, oh, you're great. I

21:50

was like, yeah, you can write a

21:52

letter I finished school.

21:54

And then the guy called me a second

21:57

here. You can speak or you can

21:59

write, read. I give you

22:01

these five phones. All

22:03

the folks, everybody come,

22:05

take fifty afghani's. Right? How

22:07

many people you did? And at the end of

22:09

the

22:09

day, I will take money from you. And

22:12

if you want to call, you can call from your family

22:14

every time you want. So

22:16

basically, Aizen working as a phone

22:18

operator in the prison. He would coordinate

22:20

who was using which phone for

22:22

how long and then collect money from

22:24

them. There was

22:25

a lot of people

22:27

who like, kids and

22:29

stuff? I was so scared. Like, I spent twenty

22:31

days a while I was scared, but I was also

22:33

trying to have someone that

22:35

protects me with the boss. He loves

22:37

me a

22:37

lot. He was like, I don't know.

22:40

Kinda so good with me. Isaac

22:42

needed this protection. The

22:44

older men who were into Baccarat

22:46

z had their eyes on him, especially

22:48

because he looked different. Isan's

22:51

family came to visit a few times while he was

22:53

in there. They brought him food, they

22:55

brought him a bit of money, hoping his case

22:57

would get resolved soon. But

22:59

that

22:59

prison was just a holding place.

23:02

After ten days, if his case wasn't

23:04

resolved, he'd be transferred to a more

23:06

permanent facility. In

23:09

First time, they were try transferring from this

23:11

place to the huge president of Afghanistan

23:13

that they call it

23:14

politically. Okay. Which

23:17

is Deb? The main

23:18

person? Yeah. Where is it? As

23:20

in Cabot. This guy

23:23

that I was working for,

23:25

he went to the main

23:28

person, the the police,

23:30

he said, I would give you five thousand

23:32

Afghanistan. Don't transfer him this week

23:34

as well. Keep him. he

23:36

said, I already skipped one week. No.

23:38

I cannot again. One time, I skipped. Just

23:40

we need to send him. And

23:42

then this guy called his friend

23:45

who is in the main prison. He's also a prisoner, but

23:47

he was Afghanistan. Instead to him that

23:49

this guy is coming. His name is this. He need

23:51

to take care of

23:52

him. So after twenty

23:55

days in jail, Eisen was transferred

23:57

to Aizen, just

23:59

outside Kabul.

24:00

Still a hit. Tonight, WE WANT TO TAKE

24:02

YOU INSIDE THE PLACE THAT YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.

24:04

IT'S BEEN DESCRIBED AS A BREEDING GROUND

24:07

FOR INSURGENCE. THE TALIBAN CALL

24:09

IT A RECRUTMENT CENTRE.

24:11

Pulcharkey has seen riots,

24:13

jail breaks, and political

24:15

executions. But not long ago, then

24:17

Taliban ran its own Medrasa

24:20

school here and completely control

24:22

their prison wings so that guards had to

24:24

leave food at the door. Polysharky

24:26

holds prisoners accused of all

24:28

crimes, drug trafficking,

24:30

theft, murder, as well as armed

24:33

resistance. Those accused of fighting the Afghan government

24:35

told us that they'd rather be in one

24:37

Kerning than here.

24:40

Polly chunky is the

24:43

largest prison in Afghanistan. From

24:46

above, it looks like a wheel, a

24:48

circle of building blocks with eight

24:50

Spokes. Each one is a

24:52

massive cell block. I've seen

24:54

pictures and videos of what this Aizen

24:56

looks like on the inside. And

24:58

it's one of the most grim places you can

25:00

imagine. Dirty floors,

25:02

dirty walls, clothes,

25:05

shoes, rubbish, or littered everywhere.

25:07

The official capacity at Policharhi is

25:09

five thousand, but estimates put

25:11

the actual number of prisoners there at twice

25:13

that number, ten thousand.

25:16

Inmates are cramped into rusty,

25:18

smelly, squallet cells.

25:20

It's freezing cold in the winter

25:22

and sweltering hot in the summer.

25:26

This concrete hell was built in the

25:28

seventies and was used as a Soviet

25:30

prison in the eighties. In

25:32

two thousand and eight, when the Americans

25:35

took over, They spent eighteen

25:37

million dollars on renovating

25:39

it before they pulled the plug because

25:41

they saw it was beyond repair.

25:44

Still, the Americans transferred two

25:46

hundred and fifty prisoners from

25:48

Guantanamo Bay to Polychari.

25:51

Skipping from here is impossible.

25:55

Impossible at all.

25:56

Okay? From the main door, from the

25:59

first take the

26:01

prisoners, it's one hour in the hall.

26:05

Okay. To the impossible

26:07

to schedule you. It's huge.

26:09

What did you see happen

26:11

there? A lot of things.

26:14

Fighting people trying to society

26:16

-- Yeah. -- people complained, oh,

26:18

this guy tried to rape me. A lot of

26:20

things happen in India. Some people

26:22

try to rip other guys and they complain

26:24

in their fighting in the

26:26

stuff. I got

26:28

beaten in a fight that I don't know that

26:30

the fight will happen. The attack

26:32

the fight happened between Western people

26:35

and Farce people. They

26:37

said that they were trying to rip a guy

26:39

-- Okay. -- from Farce

26:41

--

26:41

Okay. -- in the fight.

26:44

Because I was sleeping with I was

26:46

supposed to Yeah.

26:46

But because

26:46

I was speak good language. I

26:50

was

26:50

in the first society. Yeah.

26:52

They just meet me with a Sweden.

26:59

Sixteen

26:59

years old in Policharri,

27:02

charged and treated as

27:04

an adult for a crime he didn't

27:06

commit. Eisen described how when he first

27:08

got there. He was put in a room with

27:10

people he recognized from the previous

27:13

Aizen. But they were into Bajapazee,

27:16

so he was scared to sleep at

27:18

night, worried that someone would assault

27:20

him. Not to mention tensions

27:22

between the two ethnic groups, the Pashton

27:24

side and the Faricy side.

27:26

He also described how there'd be

27:28

no water for days no access to a shower,

27:31

rats and mice everywhere and an

27:33

unbearable stench. What

27:35

helped is that someone knew he was

27:37

Kerning, the boss from the previous jail. The

27:39

guy with all the tattoos had

27:42

called and told them to look out for this

27:44

blonde kid. His

27:46

name was Rohit. Rohit? Yeah. He

27:48

was at pretty nice, can you see? You stay

27:50

with me. Everybody look at

27:52

you. It's not good to say, but

27:54

when I get attacked, I had a small

27:56

life because the guy who hit, he told me,

27:58

keep this. It will happen. I

28:00

know you're nobody will you don't have problem, but they have

28:02

problem. Okay. So when these attacks are, they

28:04

beat me a lot. Like, I could beat and I was

28:06

not planning to use. So

28:09

I didn't kick someone, but I was putting in

28:11

the clothes and making the

28:13

go.

28:13

What do you call it? Like, It's

28:16

a terrible thing. Yeah.

28:17

Like, cut off. Yeah. Because you do is

28:19

tell what will you think. So

28:24

the fight finish, they use the spray.

28:26

The paper spray -- Yeah.

28:28

-- so bad. And the police

28:30

come to encountering the people that they

28:32

saw their fighting Take a lot of boys. The

28:35

collect, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote fee, is

28:37

a small room that you can long term,

28:39

you cannot not sit, you need

28:42

to just twenty four

28:44

hours.

28:44

When I asked Isaac to read

28:46

me some of the poetry he wrote, a photo

28:49

fell out of his notebook from

28:51

This picture was taken at Policharke.

28:53

I know this sounds

28:55

unusual, but one of the prisoners had

28:57

hired a photographer to

28:59

come in and take a portrait of him and Isan together.

29:02

There's a date stamped in the corner,

29:04

tenth of October twenty seventeen.

29:07

You can see a concrete room with nothing

29:09

but dirt on the walls. There

29:11

are no windows and the lighting is

29:14

bad. In center frame, Eisen stands

29:16

next to this other prisoner. Both are

29:18

wearing traditional Afghan clothes.

29:21

They're standing a few feet apart and

29:23

looking directly at the camera. Neither one is

29:26

smiling. Aizen steer

29:28

is charged with terror and fatigue.

29:32

It's a haunting image. I

29:34

had that quote. I just went

29:36

in the quote. I went one time to take

29:38

my name, everything. They say, okay. Come

29:41

next time. We will

29:43

decide to listen to my case and everything and

29:45

decide that no. He didn't get anything. You

29:47

drive illegally, but you spent three months

29:49

this is a long time, notice.

29:51

So yeah, you're free. You can go. The call decided to

29:53

make me free at Wednesday,

29:56

but everything was closed in

29:58

Wednesday, Thursday. Off

30:01

Friday off. So that they

30:03

something when office was

30:06

off Sunday, I

30:08

get free. Spin four, five

30:10

nights without reason. That's why I'm

30:12

saying it for neckwindsies.

30:16

When we come back. After three months

30:19

in jail, Ivan tries to

30:21

readjust to life on the outside.

30:23

Once Isen was

30:26

out of prison, things weren't easy.

30:28

He had missed his entrance exams

30:31

for university, And when he eventually retook them, he didn't

30:33

do so well. On top

30:35

of that, he now had a criminal record,

30:37

which meant he couldn't find any

30:39

decent work. He

30:41

tried to clear this record, but he

30:43

would have had to pay the officials a bribe to

30:45

do that money that he

30:47

didn't

30:47

have. You know, like, is it just something

30:49

when you're in the prison, you think,

30:51

I'm forever in here. Like, did you

30:53

have anything else to talk think about?

30:55

I was just praying. So when

30:58

I come out, I had a

31:00

beard, long beard,

31:03

black beard. Okay? And I had white clothes, and I come

31:05

on, I was totally a

31:07

different person. For

31:10

the time that I

31:13

come out of the

31:16

prison. I don't think I had

31:18

relationship with that time because I was, like, kind

31:20

of as they say, they lost their honor

31:22

because their son go to jail. They

31:24

always think because a few people

31:26

talking about you, it hurts us. I was like,

31:29

I haven't done anything wrong. I

31:31

just lost the car, but I found the

31:33

police. People are saying, oh, he was

31:35

traveling with the girls in the car. That's why he lost

31:37

the car. I was like, I haven't

31:39

done anything. Basically,

31:42

the relationship with my parents was it

31:44

was not good from the beginning, but they

31:46

just totally get destroyed. Every

31:47

day, Kerning time to eat, they start, dum dum dum

31:50

dum dum. You don't work. You don't do

31:52

this. What's someone on your

31:54

side? No.

31:56

The sisters, brothers, no.

31:58

My sister brother, we're all young. They cannot say anything

32:00

in front of me. You know, like, middle eastern parents.

32:02

You cannot say anything in front of your parents even

32:04

if you treat five still for

32:06

the mutineers.

32:07

So A prickly relationship with his

32:10

parents, the cruelty of being

32:12

locked up without committing a crime,

32:14

the shame of going to jail. It

32:16

was becoming unbearable. His family blamed him

32:19

for ruining their

32:19

honor, for losing his job, for not

32:22

bringing in any money. Then

32:24

one day my cousin told me,

32:26

I said, if I pay for

32:28

your travel to go to Europe,

32:31

I was like, I'm the person. I'm not gonna

32:33

say no. So one day, like, they told

32:35

me just like my I think my cousin just told

32:37

me, like, fun. Do you wanna go? I was like, yeah.

32:39

I wanna go. I don't wanna say

32:41

anymore. In February twenty

32:45

nineteen, Aizen decided he was going to

32:47

leave Afghanistan. His cousin

32:49

who works in Saudi Arabia was

32:51

offering to pay for his journey to

32:53

Europe. But this wasn't a plane

32:55

ticket or a visa fee or a

32:57

bus pass. For Isen, the

32:59

only way out of Afghanistan would be

33:01

through a labyrinth of smuggler networks

33:03

and illegal border

33:04

crossings. I first, I was thinking

33:07

there's a fan because I was I thought they were not

33:09

going to send me. They just say because a lot of fan used to

33:11

spend on someone to Google. Didn't want

33:13

the mechanic on the good boys and stuff for

33:15

yourself. I was like, okay. I was so like,

33:17

fucking quick. My

33:20

dad took his and escarped to this place. I

33:22

call it company. From company, you

33:24

take the buses to Nimros. It's

33:26

twelve hours waiting Nimros.

33:28

I say goodbye to my dad. Yeah.

33:31

Goodbye. My dad told me, I remember

33:33

this. He say goodbye

33:35

and he went. He come back after one hour

33:37

and he killed me. If you don't

33:39

wanna go, turn back

33:41

now. I don't know why he said that he's

33:43

alive. I'm not telling you

33:45

to go if you don't wanna go to a

33:47

map, I know they say

33:49

it a lot of things, but

33:51

still like I

33:53

think my dad me more than my mom.

33:56

Next time I'm

33:59

Kerning

33:59

cultures, Aizen says

34:02

goodbye to Afghanistan. I

34:05

calculate all of the things, like ten days in here, ten days in here,

34:07

ten days in here, dessert. So my

34:09

plan was months in the

34:12

front. I was like, in three months, I'll be in

34:14

front. Was

34:15

it something that

34:17

you scared at? Not

34:20

really. I mean, I said,

34:22

I've seen a lot of things in

34:24

Afghanistan, so the only thing like

34:26

people who scare out out Afghanistan

34:29

hard, like, huge

34:32

experience with this as well,

34:34

like, today, tomorrow, one day.

34:36

So, hold

34:38

it. Like, who cares if even

34:40

if I die. This episode was produced by Adeshiyabani

34:42

and edited by Alex

34:44

Atak and Meade, Dana Balut.

34:47

Fact checking was by Iman

34:49

Sherif and Dina Subree and Sound Design

34:51

was by Monzodil Hashim and

34:53

Paul Aloof. Our team also includes Dina,

34:55

do we die, Nadine Saket and Finbar Anderson.

34:57

Thanks for listening, and we'll see you again next

35:00

week. Take

35:02

care.