Bullets Hailed in the Darkness As 13-year-old Sayed Kazemi Ran for His Life

Bullets hailed in the darkness as 13-year-old Sayed Kazemi ran for his life. Abandoned by smugglers in a hot desert, a bottle of water was supposed to be his salvation. At the age of 13, Sayed Kazemi's future was to become a child soldier for the Taliban.

The adrenaline is pumping. Sweat drops from the forehead. 13 years have passed since the young Afghan quietly left stepbrother with a dream of a better future.

But it is no longer about survival - as it did that afternoon 13 years ago. It's about achieving the dream of being the best. He has achieved everything that no one else has managed before him in the nearly 100-year-old history of Raufoss boxing club.

But then there is no one before him who has carried such heavy luggage with him into Raufosshallen. Zayed Kazemi was born in the village of Jaghori - a district in Gazni province in central Afghanistan in the autumn of 2000. He was one of the few who went to a normal school and he learned English. But it was to get dramatically worse.

In the 2010s, the Taliban consolidated their grip on power in the country and in 2013 Kazemi's regular schooling came to an end. Now it was expected that he would defend his religion. - It is either to become a child soldier and kill others, and that is something I absolutely cannot do.

Then I'd rather die. His uncle, who escaped to Iran many years ago, makes the young boy understand the bloody seriousness of his homeland. - It's like that when you're a child, you very often think about exactly where you are and how things are there.

So I never imagined that there was a safer place in the world. Everyone in Afghanistan was aware that crossing the border into Iran was illegal. - About every day you hear on TV that people are dying on the way there.

Nevertheless, he decided to make the inhuman choice. "Because that's the price for getting somewhere. It's that you put your life on the line and that's the price tag for taking that journey.

The slender youngster, who has been declared malnourished by an international aid organisation, begins to train. He has been advised that if he is physically active, it is easier to take in nutrition. One afternoon in late summer, a hatch opens together with some older young people.

ESCAPE: An internally displaced Afghan family walks with their belongings after fleeing the Jaghori district to escape ongoing fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in Ghazni November 13, 2018. - They say they cannot take responsibility for a child. First of all, you don't have the mentality to run up and down the mountain while being shot from behind, he remembers being told. After the uncle in Iran comes on the track, he gets approval.

He is the one who has contributed money to the first stage. To get to Iran, the escape must take place via Pakistan. It is too dangerous to cross the border from Afghanistan.

He comes together with around 45 other refugees. It is a mixture of younger and older people who have been on the same trip several times. ON Here is a picture Sayed Kazemi took with his own mobile phone during the run.

He tells of over 40 people who are pressed together like bricks at the back of a loading platform in stages that are as long as from Oslo to Namsos. There are long walks through desert areas on foot."