Zohre Esmaeli

Zohre Esmaeli was born on July 1, 1985, in Kabul, the youngest of seven children. Her mother, who was her father's second wife, died in a traffic accident when she was two years old.[3][4] She was raised by her dad's first wife and has four brothers and two sisters. Like her sisters, as a girl, she could not attend a public school,[5] but after pleading with her father he agreed to her being home schooled by private tutors.[6][7]

When Esmaeli was thirteen years old, her parents sold all their belongings and decided to leave Afghanistan to escape from the war and the Taliban regime. Her father left Kabul with three of his children and his second wife on the load bed of a truck.[4] They paid a Russian people smuggling gang to bring them to Germany to join her brothers who already lived there. Their difficult and 10000 km long journey took six months, via Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic,[8] but in 1999, they finally crossed the border to Bavaria. During the dangerous journey with long wintry walks through woods, and rides hidden in train waggons and car boots, Zohre Esmaili nearly drowned crossing a border river in Slovakia.[9] The family were imprisoned for several days in the Ukraine where Esmaili became seriously ill due to malnutrition and bad hygienic conditions.[3] After arriving in Germany, the family first stayed in three asylum seekers' hostels in Darmstadt, Schwalbach, and Calden, before moving to their own flat in Vellmar near Kassel.[2][10]

Zohre Esmaeli presenting Afghan fashion at the fashion show "Afghanische Nacht" in Bad Kreuznach on 5 November 2011 in support of the charity Afghanistan - Hilfe die ankommt (photo: S.Herler)

Zohre Esmaeli attended a comprehensive school and after an internship she wanted to pursue the career of an airplane electronics engineer.[11] Her school years were difficult for her as she and her brother were the only foreigners in the class at her first school and also after moving to Vellmar she was bullied at her school in Ahnatal.[2] Although now staying in Germany, her father and older brothers insisted on her living according to the Afghan tradition and had chosen a husband for her to marry. In order to escape from the family pressures and live according to her own wishes Zohre Esmaeli left at age 17 her family in spring of 2003 and moved into a children's home. After 12 days she ran away and went into hiding in Zuffenhausen near Stuttgart living with the family of her then boyfriend. During her first year living there she did not have any contact with her family. Later Esmaeli established again a normal relationship with her father although she does not discuss her work at home.[6][10][12][13] Esmaeli speaks four languages, Dari (her mother tongue), Persian, English, and German.[7]

During three weeks in July 2013 a 4x5 meter large picture of Esmaeli could be seen by S-Bahn travellers in Düsseldorf on an empty windowless house wall which was painted by airbrush artist Andi Ponto. It was a birthday present of her boyfriend who lived in a house opposite of the wall.[14][15] By order of the house owner the painting had to be whited out by the artist.[16]

Her brother, Abdul Gharfour Esmaeli, is a cruiserweight boxer who started his professional career at the Internationale Box-Gala in Kassel in November 2012.[17][18]

Esmaeli is ambassador[31] of the German charity Save Society which fights against discrimination. Other ambassadors of the charity are the German épée fencer Monika Sozanska,[32] runner Marius Broening, actress Vanessa Eichholz[33] and film producer Catherine Ackermann. Official supporters include the members of the German Bundestag Stefan Kaufmann and Hartmut Koschyk.[34]

Based on her own experience as refugee[1][26] Esmaeli founded the project "Culture Coaches" to help the sustainable integration of refugees.[35] The project wants to give newly arrived families from the start an insight into German culture and the values of German society by developing a bicultural didactics and a tutor team.[36] It is supported by the Bürgerstiftung Berlin,[37] a charitable foundation under the patronage of Wolfgang Thierse,[38] which was started 1999 by Berlin citizens.[39] The costs of the project have been raised by crowd funding[40] and through a refugee fundraising event on 13 November 2015 in Berlin[41][42] which raised the indented target of 40.000 Euros.[43]