Brave Harrogate exile speaks about 'terrible dilemma' of leaving loved ones behind to face Taliban rule
A brave Afghan refugee has talked about her “devastating” decision to flee the Taliban and build a new life in Harrogate while refusing to give up on her mission to promote the culture of her homeland.
After serving as Arts Programme Manager for the British Council in Kabul from 2012, Tamanna Krami was flown out with her husband and three young children just a couple of weeks before the city’s chaotic fall in August 2021.
The decision to flee into exile was almost impossible to make, she said, but staying could have been fatal.
She was forced to leave behind not only a flourishing professional career in Afghanistan’s arts and cultural programme but most of her own family.
“It was a heartbreaking situation,” said Tamanna, 30.
"I was a target for the Taliban simply because of working in the arts for the British Council.
“Myself and my husband Masood had two days’ notice before we had to be flown out.
"But we were lucky. Other people had less than that and only escaped with the clothes on their backs."
"The worse thing was knowing that we could only bring the children with us but that our wider families could not come.
"I’d just lost my dad and was about to leave my mum behind.
"I felt terrible but I knew If we remained in Kabul I might not be alive now.
"Our loved ones are still in hiding in the city and have to change where they live at regular intervals for their own safety.”
Working directly for the British Council, in close liaison with the British Embassy, Tamanna not only brought UK culture to Afghanistan, she worked to give a voice to the cultural riches and unspoken talents of her own homeland.
Among her many achievements, Tamanna brought Shakespeare’s Hamlet, performed by the Globe Theatre, to the British Embassy in Kabul.
As the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) focal point in Afghanistan, she also led a major restoration project of 160 paintings in the Afghan National Gallery which had been damaged during a previous era of Taliban rule marked by looting and destruction.
Perhaps most significantly of all, she also helped create the first-ever Afghan Women’s Orchestra in conjunction with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.
But her role was a tricky and dangerous one for her and her family from the very beginning, well before the withdrawal of western military forces from Afghanistan.
"The challenges were huge,” said Tamanna
"It wasn’t just a case of changing people’s attitudes towards Afghan culture, I had to be sensitive to my own people’s perceptions at times.
“My life was threatened by the insurgents several times before Kabul fell in 2021.
"If I had to go to Britain to work with the British Museum on a project, my husband would often get a threatening phone call back home.”
Since Tamanna, Masood and her three children, who are now aged seven, ten and 12, arrived in Harrogate, Tamanna has been hugely grateful for what she says has been the “brilliant support” of the authorities and local groups, from the Home Office and North Yorkshire Council to The Refugee Council and Harrogate and Knaresborough District of Sanctuary.
To give something back, she helps the latter group, acting as an unofficial helper and interpreter for fellow Afghan refugees who do not share her expert command of English.
The last four years in Harrogate have been a challenge for Tamanna but her passion for the arts and the culture of her home country is strong, as audience members will learn at a talk she is giving called My Beautiful Homeland - Life in Exile at Harrogate Library.
Still, this is not the life she would have chosen and the pain of separation from loved ones and homeland is unbearable at times.
"I am always worrying about my relatives,” Tamanna said.
"The situation for them under the Taliban is frightening.
"Britain has been so supportive but I feel disconnected from my family and from my roots.
"Our children still ask both of us “when are we moving back to Afghanistan?”
"What can I say in reply to that question?”
My Beautiful Homeland - Life in Exile, Harrogate Library, Wednesday, June 18, 1pm.