Afghan refugees in Edmonton reflect on year since Taliban takeover of homeland

In a west Edmonton apartment, Karima Delijam, 32, and her 14-year-old daughter Soraya Yasa talk over tea on a calm summer day.

Despite the relaxing domestic scene, Delijam's daily reality is haunted by their traumatic flight from Afghanistan.

"I have nightmares about my family, my parents, my sister," she said in an interview Thursday.

"The nightmare was about the Taliban searching after them and they're running. They're shouting."

Delijam's extended family members are still in her home country.

It has been a year since the U.S. military pulled its troops out of Afghanistan. The Taliban, a listed terrorist entity under Canadian law, seized power in the aftermath.

The takeover is considered a human rights crisis with women, as well as religious and ethnic minorities, most affected. When the organization was previously in power, it enforced restrictions on women impacting their clothing, public life and education. 

Delijam was living in Kabul when she learned the Taliban had overtaken the city. She said was shocked as she watched a panicked scene in the streets outside the office building where she was working.

"Crowds of terrified people. They were running to the houses. They were fleeing to their houses, and the car horns [were] blaring," she said. 

"And I can remember I saw a schoolgirl and her books had fallen out of her hands and she was trampled underfoot."

Delijam, her husband, toddler and teenage daughter fled to Pakistan where they sought humanitarian aid. The family moved to Edmonton as refugees in January of 2022.

"The people around us, the neighbourhoods, we receive support from them and we receive so much love from them," she said. 

More than 17,300 Afghans have moved to Canada over the past year. 

In Alberta, around 3,030 Afghans and their family members have arrived in the province as government-assisted refugees and another 1,110 have been privately sponsored, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.