Gulwali Passarlay

The Proper Mental Podcast

Welcome to episode 173 with Gulwali Passarlay, who is a speaker and campaigner for refugee rights.

Gulwali was sent away from Afghanistan at the age of twelve, after his father was killed in a gun battle with the US Army.

He was smuggled into Iran and spent the next 12 months traveling through Europe. He crossed 10 countries, was put in prison 6 times, endured a desolate month in the camp at Calais and almost drowned at sea before making it to Britain.

When he arrived, the authorities did not believe he was a child of 13 due to his appearance.

Eventually he was fostered, sent to a good school, won a place at a top university, and was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in 2012 and he has told his story of life as a refugee in his autobiography: “The Lightless Sky” which is an incredible read.

In this episode I chat to Gulwali about his childhood in Afghanistan before being forced to leave.

We chat about the impact that fleeing a war zone had on his mental health and how the struggles with bureaucracy, isolation and racism added to his mental struggles.

We also chat about how his story is just one of thousands of similar stories and we talk about compassion and understanding and breakdown some of the myths and misunderstandings around refugees and asylum seekers.

In the general conversation around the refugee crisis, people tend to talk in numbers or about boats and barges and benefits but behind every figure and statist is a person, who just like Gulwali, has probably lived through some horrific experiences and I wanted to do an episode about the mental health side of that.

This is an episode that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s a little different but it’s important and I can’t thank Gulwali enough for his insight and his time.

You can follow Gulwali on social media here: @gulwali_passarlay

Watch his Tedx Talk here: How I got to Manchester from Afghanistan: Gulwali Passarlay at TEDxManchester (youtube.com)

And his website is Gulwali Passarlay | The official website of an influential Afghan refugee who is a published author, TEDx speaker, and a Politics major at the University of Manchester. (wordpress.com)

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Thanks for listening!