Mitra from Iran

My name is Mitra, I am 32 years old and I come from Esfahan, a city in central Iran.

I left my country 2 months ago. There I left my parents and my sister. I am a painter and a tattoo artist and in my country I used to be an art teacher. Me and my husband decided to leave when I got fired from the school in which I used to work because I did not want to wear the hijab and because I have some tattoos, which are illegal in Iran.

To arrive here we crossed Turkey, then we moved to Greece by boat, and we crossed Albania and Montenegro. We moved mostly by taxi but we generally crossed the borders by foot. We arrived in Bosnia Herzegovina about one week ago, we stayed some days in the camp of Sarajevo and then we moved here in Bihać to prosecute our journey towards Croatia. We want to arrive in France, in Marseille or Montepellier, because my husband studied chemistry in France, he knows already the language and he has a recognised degree. There he has some friends too. Once I got there, I would like to open my own art studio, for painting and tattoos.

About my life from before I miss my family. The life in this camp is neither bad, nor good… We have to share the room with other four people. Some of them smoke inside and this bothers me… But we like to stay here in the Social Cafè. If it was open even during the night we would stay always here. Here the environment is friendly and I can make a lot of art activities.

My biggest dream is to get the French passport so that I can return home and see my family.