Zahra had never heard before of United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, commemorated every year on November 25th. But she knows first-hand what violence is. She has been sadly familiar with it, since she was a child. When she was 13 years old a man came to her house carrying sweets. He was a compatriot, originally from Afghanistan living in Iran. Without even having the time to realize what was happening, he took her with him, to marry her with his 16-year-old son. Zahra was still a child when she gave birth to her first son, Amir, who is 14 now years old. And then she had two more boys: 11 year old Basir and 3-year old Zafar.

Violence was her everyday companion. She experienced it in her life as undocumented person in Iran, in facing closed doors of schools for her children, in the desperation that led her husband to become drug addict, in her many journeys along with her sons till she was able to reach Greece.

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