I am Sayed Sadat, an Afghan, living in New Zealand with my family for nearly two decades. Born in 1963, in a remote village of Wardak, a province to the west of Kabul, in Afghanistan, to devout parents and basically hailing from a pastoral community and forefathers. My late father rose up in life, in service, being a high ranking police official during the regimes of the royalty of the late King Zahir Shah and later continued on promoted levels under the rule of President Dawood Khan, who replaced the late King, becoming the president of the Republic Of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, my life was pleasant from the stage of infancy and continued so during my primary level of education. However, as the Bloody Revolution took place in my country, Afghanistan, life was no longer pleasant.

After the dawn of revolution, finding opposition, the leaders who stood against the communists backed by the west especially America and the majority of European countries and announced Jihad against the Afghan Communist regime and their allies The Great Russia. The Communists were backed by the mighty USSR with over 150,000 soldiers from the Red Army of their time, as they invaded Afghanistan with their idealistic follower’s invitation. Therefore, both used unlimited supplies of weapons and their mighty power to control local community, which at the time was referred to as Mujahedeen.

This unleashed and brought in a wave of tumultuous upheaval in the life of the countrymen, including my life as well as millions across the country. The very next day of the revolution, many reputable individuals that were serving the country under the government of King Zahir Shah Royalty were put into jail for no particular reason, including my own father. The life that me and my family knew had changed forever. It worsened with the outlaying of new rules and regulations by the communists, as a popular resistance movement began and resulted in chaotic conditions. Schooling became disrupted and many were burnt down or simply destroyed.

 

At a tender age of 15 years, I was forced to flee the country to join my father, who had escaped from the ordeals of the communist prison, as he had already sought refuge in Pakistan. But contrary to expectation, I could not reach the levels of proficiency in academic pursuits, being a mere refugee, had to end up, doing odds and ends of multiple menial jobs to earn a sustenance. I had been moved to Iran and lived there for a few years, had to meet the same type of deprivations in my daily life. That respite also got hattered with the unleashing of hostilities and war, fought between Iraq and Iran during that time when Iran was ruling by the great religious man Khomeini in 80s.

 

So I had to flee to Pakistan again, and for nearly ten years worked there, as a driver for the UN, and had to be a part of the convoy carriers, transporting essentials to Afghanistan. Life was hard and tenuous, family life disturbed and no hope for the future.

 

Then godsend, I had managed to seek refuge in New Zealand with my family. Therefore, we could have a comfortable and peaceful life, and my children could have the best possible education. I am father to 5 children.

Despite the hardships of life, I started pursuing the things I was most passionate about, painting and writing. Despite not having a high level of education, I continued to challenge myself into doing the things I enjoyed the most and the things that people didn't expect from me. I was also pleasantly surprised at my own achievements, despite of peoples misbelief in my abilities. All of my work has been self taught and born out of sheer imagination because I never had the opportunity of attending school or university where these skills would have been taught to me. Till this date, I have not had a chance to display my art work to the public. I have a very large collection of about 4 to 5 hundred pieces, that ranges from different colours, sizes and materials, and have been produced by different methods and techniques. I am hoping that it will receive an encomium, but either way I am still satisfied with my own work.

 

Despite experiencing intolerable levels of hardship throughout my life, it has taught me to become a strong and independent person. Living in exile as a refugee with very limited resources, opportunities and lack of qualification and on top of having extremely poor health, I am proud of how far I have come.