Rustam Wahab is the proud son of refugees – but only a few people knew until recently.
His parents and older brother, who was two at the time, risked their lives in 2001 to flee war and persecution in Afghanistan and seek refuge in England.
Mr Wahab, 22, was in his mum’s stomach when she made the journey to England in the hope of finding a better life.
The family, who now live in London and Essex, were used to a comfortable lifestyle when they lived in central Kabul, but were catapulted into extreme poverty when they first arrived in the country.
Mr Wahab said: “The first time I told people that I was a son of refugees was a year ago, so it’s not been a long time.”
Mr Wahab said: “The earliest example I have of us being very poor as a result of being an asylum seeker was when me and my older brother went to school and it was a funfair day.
“We only had 50p [and] we didn’t have money to go on the bouncy castle.”
Mr Wahab said his older brother gave him the 50p as they did not have enough money for them both to have a go.
“One teacher saw and let us both go onto the bouncy castle, and stuff like that has stuck with me and my older brother.
“That’s the first time we had experienced the kindness of other people and them treating us with fairness and love.”
‘Middle class life’
Mr Wahab said his family used to live near the presidential palace in the Afghan capital, but their life had been destroyed due to the war and left his parents with no other choice but to risk everything and flee.
He said: “It was a middle class life, my dad worked from the age of 12, he helped out his dad while still going to school.
“My dad was a really, really hard worker and he still is now, to support his family right now he is working crazy hours.
“So the transition from middle class life to them being at the bottom of society – it was really difficult for my parents.
“Not only did they flee war and persecution, [but] then they came to the UK and went through poverty and being dirt poor and [not being able] to afford certain stuff.
“The people who come here illegally don’t want to come here, they have to come here and as soon as people realise that the whole narrative on asylum seekers coming here… will change.”
‘Heartwarming’
Mr Wahab is studying for a degree in philosophy, politics and economics at Southampton University. Alongside his studies he runs an Instagram page, on which he shares videos that give an insight into events taking place across the world to more than 700,000 followers.
Mr Wahab has recently focused on sharing informative videos that reference the riots that took place after disinformation was spread online about the circumstances of an attack in which three young girls were fatally stabbed in Southport.
Following the disorder that followed the incident, he said: “Of course, I have been subject to a little bit of racism and Islamophobia.
“But seeing that with my own eyes, a mass amount of people just rioting and attacking people of colour – it made me feel frightened, scared and unwelcomed.
“I really thought about immigrating to a different country because of it.”
Yet he added he found the counter-protests “heartwarming”.
Mr Wahab added: “It just goes to show that there is a small minority who share those racist, far-right views, but the majority of the country actually want us here.”
‘Worked hard’
However, growing up Mr Wahab said he had kept his family’s history a secret.
Hostility was rampant towards people of colour after 9/11 and Mr Wahab’s parents hoped to protect their children by telling them to hide who they were.
Mr Wahab said: “The first time I told people that I was a son of refugees was a year ago, so it’s not been a long time.”
He launched his Instagram page in 2019 and it started to grow quickly during 2020, but he felt his identity “was sort of like a secret”.
“I saw that the hate towards people of colour and refugees was getting so bad, that I thought I should share my story and the person running this account is actually a son of refugees.
“We’re just normal people, not a threat to anyone. We’re just here living the same as them, paying their taxes.”
“We sort of had to hide our identity up until maybe our teenage years, when we kind of got fed up of it and we didn’t want to hide who we were anymore.
“We used to say we were Pakistani or Turkish instead of saying we were Afghan.
“It was difficult really because my parents were always quite protective and a bit ashamed because of the connotations that come with [being a] refugee as well.”
But now he said: “I am pretty proud of it.”
“My parents have worked hard to give us good decent lives after they got their British status in 2007.”
Moving forward he said he hoped to finish his degree and and wants to pursue a career as an MP.
“I do want to be an MP, I do believe that to cause real change is through Parliament.”
