At the Green Party, Ali Ehsani told the students about the long journey towards his new Italian life
July 11, 2016 - The key word in Ali Ehsani's life is "courage". His is a story of escape from a war-torn Afghanistan that took away his parents and forced him to flee with his older brother. Ali told it to the students UCBM during the end-of-year Green Party, in a crowded terrace of the Trapezio building at the end of the Research Day on Tuesday 5 July.
Ali, now a Law graduate from La Sapienza and still a student at the same university, was only 8 years old when the long journey that allowed him - but not his brother Mohammed - to reach Italy began. The two travel through Afghanistan, Pakistan, then Iran and then Turkey. From here they rely on a boat to reach Greece. But the boat sinks and Mohammed can't survive. Ali clings to a petrol can lost in the shipwreck and lands on the Greek coast carried by the current.
Left alone, once again, the child does not give up: he hides under a truck and on the second attempt he finally arrives in Italy. He is 13 years old when someone tries to abuse him while spending the nights in Rome's Ostiense station. It is perhaps the most difficult moment in his life, "that moment when you want to give up everything, but if you can resist, you understand that you are destined to reach the top" he explained to those present.
In a family home he begins his second life, made up of school and Italian courses. The diploma and the three-year degree arrive, between a job as a "bibitaro" at the stadium and home delivery of pizza. The memory of his father returns who had always encouraged him to study, convinced that "knowledge can give meaning to life". Now Ali has understood it well and does not seem to want to stop repeating it to his peers.
