Fatima Davlyatova. Source: Shabnam Khudodoydova. It was one of the most beautiful days in the life of ten-year old Fatima Davlyatova. She woke up in the morning full of hope and vigour, although the journey she was about to undertake was meant to be long and arduous. At 5pm on 3 August, together with her 65-year-old grandmother and 18-year-old uncle, Fatima got into a taxi, thinking that she was leaving her hometown of Kulob in Tajikistan forever.
With passports in their hands, the family headed to Dushanbe, the capital, to board the 6:50 morning flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. There, they were meant to collect visas to Poland in to reunite with Fatima’s mother, Shabnam Khudoydodova, an exiled human rights activist, whom they have not seen since June 2011.
But Fatima and her family never made it to Kazakhstan. Before takeoff, Tajik security agents walked onto the plane and asked the family to come with them. The three were then locked in a closed, hot room for eight hours without water, food or access to a bathroom, unaware of the reason behind their detention. Only later did they discover that their journey was interrupted because their names featured on a list of wanted persons. Upon the release, the three were forced to sign documents acknowledging this fact.
