Meet Manila Ghafuri: Inspiring advocate and storyteller for refugee rights, Chairwoman of Rapolitics

Manila Ghafuri, 29 years old
Photo Credit: Liv Latricia Habel & Copy Right: The Soulfuls

We sat down with Manila Ghafuri for a talk about self-empowerment, storytelling, role models and the importance of having the people who inspire you within your local surroundings.

Hi Manila, thank you for meeting with us today. Can you start with a brief introduction about yourself?

My name is Manila Ghafuri. I just turned 29 years and I came to Denmark when I was about six/seven years old. I was born in the Northern part of Afghanistan. I primarily work for unnoticed voices in our society. I think my heart mission is to seek justice for those. 

You are a busy woman giving speeches in front of Christiansborg, working at a girls club, being the front person for rap politics. How does a regular day look like for you? 

My goal everyday is to get my workout done, either in the mornings or during the afternoon. This is the only way possible for me, to actually have “me time”. And then typically I give some lectures or have to do some field work for example. I'll give interviews like today and then from around 3-9pm I’ll be working in the girls club. The girls' club is an open offer for all girls in Nørrebro. 

So your main income comes from the girls club?

Yes, this is where I get my salary. But I also naturally enjoy being around people a lot of the time. Aside from that, I work with an exhibition slash educational platform called Hvem er vi. Having a revenue stream makes it possible for me to actually work more voluntarily, because in between all of this there's a lot of organising events for Afghanistan. I try to update people via my Instagram about the situation in Afghanistan frequently.

What is the Hvem er vi exhibition exactly about? 

It's a platform, which is being showcased as Denmark's biggest archive about refugees in 60 years. It's a big collection of refugee portraits, back from 2016. We travelled around Denmark and visited schools to do workshops and showcase the exhibition.

You express yourself through your activism and use your voice to speak up - it seems natural to you. Where does it originate from?

I think it comes from the direct experiences I have had being a former refugee. I had to go through some phases as a child to survive and seek justice. This is something, which has taken up a lot of space for all of us [my family]. But not until I saw other people experiencing this, when I saw other refugees walking the Danish highways in 2015, I realised, okay we actually did this too. It's not only something we have talked about. It became real to me. This is what we have gone through. We walked from Afghanistan to Poland. This is what happened. This is how we came here. 

And when did your activism become your profession?

Seeing other people being in a similar situation and noticing how society reacted to it. I did not perceive this as the most warm welcoming of people, who are in very vulnerable situations - This is how I thought, I have this voice, let me see what I can do. Simultaneously this notification popped up on my facebook, from a person called Lotte Folke, who back then was working for the daily paper Information and was about to establish a refugee paper. 

I’m watching the 10PM news, seeing the refugees walking the highways and receiving Lottes message and I’m just like, this is fate. So I said yes to be part of this project. 

Can you tell us a bit more about your storytelling? 

The way I use my activism is through storytelling. You can create a story through another story. I tell the truth, obviously. But you can play with words, use humour, make people laugh, use metaphors to create emotions. These are some of the tools I find strong. When storytelling is written, it can become poetry. So sometimes I write poems, share them on my Instagram. I play with contrasts.

My interest for writing comes from my Danish studies and I literally love everything, which has to do with literature. 

Have you thought about publishing your work elsewhere?

I have written a lot, which I haven't published anywhere. Some might be too private and some of it I am not ready to share yet. I have always dreamed of publishing a book, a poetry collection, or a documentary. I have always been holding back, because I've thought, there's always been someone who already did this documentary or written this book, then I don't need to. But it's still not the same voice. 

How did you start working with storytelling?

It all started back in 2016, when I had storytelling with Babak Vakili, who was my first teacher. We rehearsed a hundred times and the first fifty times I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. My throat just shut down and he was like, try and put it on paper and read it over and over and it will improve. He was amazing in that sense I think. So this is how it all started. We went on the stage and tried to do it there, then in front of an audience and so on.

It seems like it's all a learning process. How do you handle being vocal about issues, which affect yourself personally and systematically? You are putting yourself a lot on the spot. 

I didn't know that, back when I started. Four out of five times I ended up crying on stage in front of the audience. It shouldn't have been like that at all. But it also started becoming part of my story in a way. I actively took the victim role upon myself. I made it really clear - it's NOT a choice to be a refugee. This was my main goal to begin with. I then realised, it just became way too heavy for me to do lectures.

I was struggling with headaches. I couldn't manage more. I had to rethink my message. Maybe it doesn't need to be as heavy each time? It's also okay if people laugh from time to time. I started taking the lead and see myself less as a“victim”. I was tired of being a victim. I started to say no. I started being vocal about other parts of my life, which also are important for society [ and part of my narrative], it doesn’t always need to be heavy. 

Impressive. Was this the time frame, when you started focusing more on selfcare?

Yes. I realised, if I don't change anything, they won't. They [the audience] are just like cool, let us get a piece of the pie and sit and get entertained. They will just go home afterwards. That's it. And I was like, this is not progressive enough. I don’t wanna put myself on the spot like that each and every time. 

This is also what I can feel today, if I hadn't had the time to do my workout for example, also if it's totally absurd and privileged, I can feel a jumpiness in my body, because I haven't had the time to get that done for the past two weeks.

How do you still manage to look after yourself in busy periods?

I focus on what makes sense to me to do. Maybe I do a lot of different stuff, but the offers I say yes to are projects, which make a 100% sense to spend my time on. So I really thrive in what I do. I have learned to say no, that's what it's all about. I love to work so much with young people like I do. It's actually also why I wanna work as a high-school teacher or do social work with students, who stand in vulnerable situations. This just needs another kind of effort.

Since October ‘21 you have been part of The Soulfuls’ mentorship program. Amelia Hoy has been your mentor. How has that been working out for you? 

I have been really happy to meet up with my mentor. It's crazy. Now we have an hour and it's only gonna be about you. It's like going to therapy. It has been hard for me to do so, but it made a lot of sense. I feel I have learned a lot and I wish I could have made a bigger use of it. With what happened in Afghanistan back in August 2021. and I chose to prioritise charity work in that connection. I wish the programs would last a year maybe. But it's just like events happen and then we figure out how to work around it.

It has been great to meet other people too. Connect on Instagram and in person.

Do you have a role model?

Yes I do. My role models are mainly people in my inner network, who work within different areas and really have carried me through difficult times. 

There's my family. Role models like my sisters. We are always there for each other no matter what. Period. I really wish for my kids, if I’m gonna have some, that they are gonna be there for each other. My siblings have taught me how to be there for each other and I want them to learn to do the same one day. I see a lot of value in that. 

You said people within your inner network, who else do you look up to?

People who work within the local community and different movements. It's important to be able to reflect yourself in your surroundings. I can always name drop some role model from the US or Afghanistan, but who's actually part of my daily life? Who can I reflect myself in and get inspired by? It's the people who live around here.

For example Laura Na, Nadeen Aiche or Sander from Kapelvej 44. They just continue and continue each and every day. I have seen Laura continuing the fight to this day today. They don't just do it for fun for a single day. This is something, which actually means something for them and that's amazing and fascinating to follow. 

There's also Aydin Soei, Nagieb Khaja, Mathias Findalen, my former boss at rapolitics, Prince Henry. Persons who I've always have been able to talk to. It's the locals to me.

Can you name one thing you wished people would start changing or implement in their daily life, to spread your message? 

I think the essence of it all is, if we want to believe it or not, we look differently at each other. Our view is different. Our comments. Our thoughts are just different. It's so pathetic, but if you every day when you open the door and walk out of the house, could remove the prejudices only a little bit. If we could just see each other as equals and focus on our equalities rather than differences. 

Talking about changes, what's the next step for you profesionally? 

The next step is to give my work more sustainability. I arrange charity events for Afghanistan. It would be amazing to create an actual association, have cooperation with Afghanistan. Something, which isnt day to day work, but something which officially shows for example twenty people in employment. This means that sixty families can have use of it. In that sense. This would give it more meaning. Because as it is right now, it's just day to day survival we do. This is the same case with the lectures I do. I want to create a name, a homepage. Something which makes my work more my own work and less for other people's sake. This is my next goal for sure.

If you look inwards, do you have personal goals in terms of your own development?

My goal, since January, has been boxing. Now I am doing that. I want to be more proactive in so many different ways when it comes to myself.

Last question, if you could go back in time and give a message to your younger self, what would you say to Manila?

I would say to myself, that I have to follow my gut. Stand my own ground. Have courage to say no. This is what I want to say to young Manila.

Beautiful. Thank you very much Manila. 

You are welcome! Are we done? 

Yes, we're done :-)))

- Words by The Soulfuls’ Liv Latricia Habel