We were a well-known family in Afghanistan because all of our people were educated, cultural people. My mother was called Amenah and my father, Mohammad Omer Saljuqi, was a highschool teacher and a poet.

I had a happy childhood and we had a good life because my country was peaceful then. We weren't an underdeveloped country at that point and were as developed as Ireland was. I was in the middle of a family of three boys and two girls. I studied Dari literature and social science at university and did my thesis on my father's poetry. After university, I was employed by the Ministry of Telecommunications for 17 years. It was a government job, and we didn't go for interviews for the positions . . . they sent for you if they had a vacancy.

I got married to my wife, Azizeh, when I was 23. She was a neighbour and a teacher in a creche. I wasn't involved in any political party but in 1979 there was a conflict in Afghanistan because we had a new political party, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. It was a Communist regime supported by the Soviet Union, who wanted to invade our country.

Many people didn't like that and we were under pressure to go to the front line to fight. It was compulsory but some of us refused, which caused a lot of trouble with the Taliban regime, so many people had to flee the country.

I eventually left in 1989 and went to live in Iran, which was difficult because the government didn't allow people to leave and I was a government employee. I taught at a school for refugees in Iran, which was funded by the Afghan people, but it wasn't an official job as we didn't have the right to work there. We stayed in Iran for nine years, until our case was examined by the UN. It was accepted that I couldn't go back to live in Afghanistan and we were resettled by the UN to Ireland seven years ago.

I found Ireland to be a good country and the people were very friendly and sociable. We stayed in a hotel first, as we had nowhere to live, and a journalist interviewed me. She also ran a multimedia cultural festival and she invited me to participate in it. My English wasn't very good at the time and I decided to present an exhibition on Afghan calligraphy. Through the festival, I developed links with many other cultural offices. I have written two books about Afghan music and literature and have exhibited at many exhibitions and libraries. I am now working on a book about calligraphy and art in Afghanistan.

The Afghan community in Ireland is a small one, of maybe 17 families, including asylum seekers. Many were Afghan government employees, such as teachers, doctors, engineers and artists, and have no political affiliation, so we come together and set up a community, the Afghan Community and Cultural Association of Ireland.

I am the spokesperson and we have a regular newsletter and a website, http: //nasrudinsaljoqi. tripod. com. We are working with different organisations here to establish links to improve our situation. I think it is important that our culture is supported.

We are Muslims, and have found that all religions are respected here in Ireland. The Mosque is open for us and we can practise our Islamic religion. It would be difficult for me to accept if my daughter brought home someone of another faith because according to our religion women must marry Muslims.

I don't see any negative aspects to Ireland and have had a positive experience of living here. Some people coming here experience racism but we know it only happens because racist people are uneducated about what is happening in the world. Part of our aim is to show people who we are as a community and why we are living here in Ireland.

Sometimes when people hear we are from Afghanistan, they immediately think 'Taliban'. This is because they don't know that this was the reason we left our country. Since we arrived, Ireland has become a very multicultural society, and there are many organisations now to help with integration.

It makes me sad to see my homeland now and to hear about suicide bombers.

Contrary to what people may think, these actions are against the teachings of our Islamic religion. I really hope we will one day have a peaceful country.

Education is very important to Afghan families. Azizeh and I have four children, aged from 28 to 16. Elyas studied programming at university and is working in the US, Shamien is a Montessori teacher, Arsalon is studying electronic engineering at university and Shamoon is doing his Leaving Cert. Like us, they are all very happy here.