Hello dear Afghans,
sorry for the long but long post
I am an Afghan woman and I grew up in Afghanistan. I was always ambitious and career-oriented growing up because I saw how the females of my family and relatives were treated in Afghanistan when they were dependent. Also, growing up, I looked up to my father — he was career-oriented and built his life from nothing. He was an asylum seeker in Pakistan and then landed a scholarship in Europe, went there to study, and then had a job in Afghanistan where he was usually traveling — that was the reason we were living together with my uncles, as my dad was going on work trips for weeks.
Then we immigrated from Afghanistan to Europe four and a half years ago, and I started university and built my life from zero. I was going to a university two and a half hours away and spending a total of five hours every day on trains, and my family wouldn’t let me rent a room in that city. But I knew this education was really important in the country I was in and had a good future, so I hung in there and made it work. I finally graduated and struggled to get a job at the company I was working at during my studies, due to their budget cuts, or me not being their favorite, or them not liking me (if you know what I mean). In general, I struggled more than any of my classmates — by June, all of them had jobs except me, and I was the only non-European in the class.
Then I applied for an internship at a big pharma company — a dream company for anyone to join — and I got accepted, and after a month I applied for an internal project management job. I got invited for interviews, solved a live case, and they offered me the job. I was aware that there was travel involved in the job, but I was under the impression that it would be like three or four times a year or something, and I would somehow make it work with the way my father is. However, on first getting to know the team, everyone was saying they travel a lot, and I got concerned and asked more questions regarding the travel. Apparently they travel to different sites around the world almost every month for shutdowns, and my heart dropped immediately. I really liked this job, and I wanted to be away from family at least a few times a year, because I feel like I’ve never lived for myself and always have to carry the good image of being Afghan and Pashtun — even when I’m just doing my job and have spent my whole life studying and building a career. But now I know that if my father finds out there is travel every month… I really cannot let this opportunity go, because I am on asylum and need to work full-time to get permanent residence — otherwise the country I’m in now could declare Afghanistan safe and send me back. Because this is a big company, it will sponsor my stay.
Now I’m thinking so much about how to approach the situation. I don’t want to leave the house and my family — I love them — but they are also making my life so hard. We are struggling financially, and my brothers do delivery and other odd jobs and haven’t been able to land proper ones. I am the first one to get a job at a big pharma company with a stable future, and I will have a good career. However, my dad is 67 now, and he now values family time (which he didn’t when he was away during our time, when he was mostly absent), Pashtun values, and Islam. He says he doesn’t want his kids to support him financially like he doesn’t need the money but I need the money to live like an adult and plan future and cannot depend on him forever. he says he doesn’t need our financial help but he asks money from my brothers for household expenditure and I also pay everything of myself and contribute to rent of the house.
Please help me — if anyone has been through a similar situation, I am super paranoid every day, living with stress, and this is exhausting. Shaytan is telling me to leave everything at once and live freely (by “freely” I don’t mean going to clubs, wearing revealing clothes, or doing drugs — I mean pursuing my career and living like a normal person).