Jennum Parken in Randers is my heaven. It is also the place where my children grew up. It is the place that they miss when they are away. This is where I over the last 24 years have given birth to and raised eight of our children with just a 4-year break in Egypt.

My dream is to reunite my family in Denmark. I am a single dad because the Danish state does not acknowledge my marriage. But despite having let go of everything, my degree, my job, my wife, my country, Denmark gives me the opportunity to give my daughter a good life, and that means everything to me.

For 30 years I have worked as a native language teacher, something which makes me very proud. This kind of education helps the bilingual children well on their way through school and socially. It warms my heart when I see the books we have made together.

Mapendo, my name, means love – what everybody needs. I have lost touch with my family, and I haven’t seen them for 22 years. It is a huge loss, but I have another family now, my God’s family.

My dream is to go to Korea. A dream I share with my sister, who is four years older, maybe because the Korean culture has so many similarities with the Afghan, like respect for the elderly, the way you address people, and concepts.

What I want the most is returning to my family, but I dare not even dream of that. Most important for now is getting a proper job so I can start earning money and save up.

I am an old Bosnian and proud of it. Of course I am also proud of being Danish with a valid Danish passport. The new Bosnian Danes are now more or less like the Danes. They have started thinking and speaking alike.

On another occasion I turned up dressed up with high heels, when the local plumber held “Open house – everybody welcome” – to great surprise and amusement of the other guests, who actually knew the man.

The scent of resin evokes memories of my home town Pejë, which is surrounded by tree-covered mountains. This is where I spent summers with my grandparents. In Fussingø outside Randers I reclaim the resources and some of the tranquility only this kind of nature can provide.

So I could only live half a life, suppressed and frightened. I could not address a superior directly, I could only do it through my uncle or father. It was not my actions but my sheer identity which gave rise to constant threats of imprisonment.