Peroz Zayee: Perth family’s fight to bring siblings to Australia and end 15yo half sister’s forced marriage

It was less than a year ago when Peroz Zayee’s family thought he was carefree and travelling in India. In reality, the 34-year-old was navigating the mountainous terrain of a province in eastern Afghanistan in search of a father he hadn’t seen since he was whisked from the country as a newborn by his fleeing mother and grandmother. It was a trip that has uprooted his life after the discovery of three half-siblings he is now urgently trying to save, including the race to finalise the divorce of his 15-year-old half-sister from her much-older Afghan husband. “I’ve always wanted to know about my dad, I’ve always wanted to meet him or speak with him,” he told PerthNow from Nuristan, one of the country’s least populated rural provinces and hundreds of kilometres from the capital Kabul. “Anytime I would ask my mum something, she would say she doesn’t know or she doesn’t remember. “I only had his name.” After returning to Melbourne, Mr Zayee — who went to high school in Perth — broke the news to his family. His father had died 12 years earlier and left behind three of Mr Zayee’s half-siblings, one of whom was a 15-year-old girl who had been married for two years to a 32-year-old man. Mr Zayee’s cousin — Perth local Ashley Zohab — said the family were shocked. “Peroz is more like a brother to me ... we grew up together,” she said. “It was a surprise because he hadn’t told anyone he was going to Afghanistan. “He knew that we would not let him go there.” But Mr Zayee packed up his life as a city IT worker and returned to Afghanistan once again to begin the arduous and expensive journey of dissolving the marriage of his 15-year-old sister and bringing his siblings to Australia. It has been a journey fraught with danger in a country rocked by instability and poverty after the re-emergence of the Taliban, which seized power in 2021. That same year, UNICEF estimated 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15 to 49 years old were married before the age of 18. In May this year, human rights organisation Amnesty International released a report detailing what it described as a “war on women” in Afghanistan. In a joint submission alongside the International Commission of Jurists, the report said since the Islamic fundamentalist group’s takeover, women and girls had been subjected to “draconian” restrictions and deprived of their right to safe and free lives. The two organisations urged for the crimes to be investigated as violations of international law. Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard said there was no doubt of the discriminatory restrictions practiced by the Taliban. “Banned from public life, prevented from accessing education, prohibited from walking, barred from moving freely (and) imprisoned,” she said. “These are international crimes.” For Mr Zayee, his quest has meant navigating a foreign mediation system to free his sister from her marriage. “I was scared because I was going into Taliban territory,” Mr Zayee recalled of his first few weeks in the country. “I didn’t know how the Taliban would react if they knew I was coming in on an Australian passport.” The gruelling battle to end his half-sister’s marriage at the behest of Sharia Law meant the only peaceful solution for Mr Zayee was to pay the husband’s family. The tribal mediation process stipulates a “cultural dowry” must be paid to end the marriage. The price was set and Mr Zayee was asked to pay 400 goats — equating to about $42,000 — to the husband. They later settled on 200 goats and 22 cows because the combination was easier to manage. In Perth, Ms Zohab began to collect funds on behalf of her cousin through GoFundMe, which called for a “desperate plea for help” for the siblings. “The husband’s family requested goats because that is the form of currency they use in rural areas of Afghanistan when making big transactions,” the family’s GoFundMe says. “The people in Nuristan are poor, they don’t have cash to trade so they use livestock which can be converted to cash when needed.” As the donations began to trickle in, Ms Zohab said the family hit a roadblock when US-backed GoFundMe refused to release the funds. “They are a US organisation and the US have sanctions on Afghanistan so you’re not allowed to do any kind of business (with the country),” she said. “We were in constant back and forth with GoFundMe because we were very clear with what we were trying to spend the money on.” A GoFundMe spokesperson confirmed with PerthNow the company was in contact with the family around the direction of funds. “The GoFundMe trust, safety and compliance teams are working with the organisers to ensure that the fundraiser adheres to the GoFundMe terms of service, applicable international laws and financial regulations,” they said. The family were ordered to redirect their funds to meet the company’s terms and conditions. The money raised for Mr Zayee and the sisters — now over $10,000 — would pay for lawyers and legal fees for the Australian orphan relative visa, DNA testing as required, medical expenses and other essentials relating to bringing the children to Australia. In September, Mr Zayee was instead forced to secure a loan to end his sister’s marriage which he will have to pay off after returning to Australia. Ms Zohab said it had been hard to watch her cousin work through a foreign system by himself. “Each day is dealing with more and more politics and negotiations,” she said. “It’s unruly and he’s having to work out everything on his own.” Mr Zayee’s half-sisters now remain in Kabul as he works to secure a passport for his brother and begin the process of obtaining guardianship documents. He said the next few months were a waiting game as he grappled with immigration systems and visas. Mr Zayee described the living conditions in the Afghanistan province as “grim”. “I just wish everything would move a lot faster,” he said. “It’s really hard being here ... I’m struggling a lot.” The family’s GoFundMe can still be donated to here.