Ironically, Ms Ebrahimi first emerged as a star as a child refugee in Iran but claims she cannot take her career to the next level while on a bridging visa now in Australia.
This is due to the travel restrictions attached to the bridging visa she is on while waiting for a protection visa to be processed.
Best known for her movies 'A Few Cubic Meters of Love' (2014), 'Lina' (2017) and 'Hava, Maryan, Ayesha' (2019), Ms Ebrahimi has more than 80,000 followers on Instagram.
She says she hopes to follow in the footsteps of idols such as US actress Angelina Jolie by using her platform to advocate for human rights.
Angelina Jolie speaking with children, who fled Venezuela, in Riohacha, Colombia. Credit: UNHCR
Mental toll from fleeing Afghanistan
She says she wasn’t even able to say goodbye to her mum when she came to Australia in late 2020 to visit her sister.
“I didn’t think I was going to stay here indefinitely (at that time),” she told SBS Dari.
It was only supposed to be a 45-day trip, but a few weeks into her visit, she says three women she knew back home were targeted and killed.
The Taliban insurgency was gaining ground and the country’s situation for women like her was becoming increasingly grim, she says.
Her family urged her not to return to Afghanistan, so she decided to apply for protection and was issued with a bridging visa while her asylum claim was being assessed.
Right now, because of being on bridging visa in Australia, I have lost four projects… which would have become very important works of my life.
“It was a Hollywood company, and I could have entered Hollywood very easily, except I lost it because of my bridging visa in Australia and I now I understand [the pain of] those who have spent 10 years on bridging visas in Australia," she told SBS Dari.
“I am disappointed but anyway, I must put it aside and try to look on the bright side.”
A Department for Home Affairs spokesperson said while the department did not comment on individual cases, since the end of World War II, Australia had successfully settled more than 930,000 refugees and others in humanitarian need, recognising the valuable contribution that refugees have provided, and continue to provide, to Australian society, culture and prosperity.
"This Government is committed to generous and flexible Humanitarian and Settlement Programs that meet Australia’s international protection obligations and positions Australia as a global leader in international resettlement efforts," the spokesperson said.
"Individuals in Australia who wish to seek Australia’s protection, and are found to engage Australia’s non‑refoulement (non-return) obligations, may be granted protection provided they also satisfy the relevant visa criteria, which includes the health, character and security requirements that apply to all Australian visas."
They said that all Protection visa applications were assessed on an individual basis, with regard to contemporary country of origin information.
Becoming a refugee twice in 26 years
Ms Ebrahimi’s family fled Afghanistan when she was a child and as illegal refugees in Iran, she and her siblings were not allowed to go to public schools.
They later enrolled in a special school set up for working and refugee children.
She participated in the school’s theatre class and the group made headlines for its show called "My Dad Got Lost in the Paper" about an Afghan working child who loses her father’s letter after being chased by municipality officials.
Ms Ebrahimi made her screen debut as a teenager, playing the leading female role in award-winning Iranian movie 'A Few Cubic Meters of Love' which saw her being shortlisted for the best actress award at Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival.
The film is about a forbidden romance between an Afghan refugee girl and a local Iranian boy.
She later returned to Afghanistan to play in multiple films and television series, as well as worked with an Australian filmmaker who helped her obtain a visa to come to Australia.
Back to theatre in Australia
After suffering homesickness, having “three panic attacks” and going through “very bad mental health issues”, she says she was just starting to adapt to her new life when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August 2021.
“I went through a very difficult situation. For almost a year, I struggled with ups and downs of mental health problems and after I gradually recovered, Afghanistan fell,” she said.
For two weeks, I didn’t know who I was, what I was, what I ate or didn’t eat, whether I slept or didn’t.
“Every day there was tears and sadness in my eyes. I went through a very bad time.”
But she says the experience also made her realise that she had to wake up to the new reality and use her platform to give voice to Afghan women and girls, including her younger sister, who have now been deprived of their rights to study.
With the help of her sister, she was able “stand on her feet” again and “come back to life” and join a team of fellow Afghan performers in the 'Dorr-e Dari' show in Sydney.
The “intimate storytelling” through Persian poetry was co-created by Western Sydney-based theatre company, PYT Fairfield, and Sydney University with the support of the Australia Council for the Arts and the New South Wales (NSW) Government.
Ms Ebrahimi says she views 'Dorr-e Dari' as a “very good and informative way” of reminding the Afghan community about their own culture and “an excellent way” of showcasing the “rich culture, language and stories” of Afghanistan to the rest of the world.
Ms Ebrahimi spoke to SBS Dari about her career and plans for the future. Credit: SBS
The troupe of four Afghan performers are now on a tour of Victoria, performing the show for children and adults on Friday and Saturday at the Arts Centre Melbourne.
Ms Ebrahimi has also worked with Australian film director, Max Walker, to create a film version of 'Shereen', an Afghan TV series screened in 2015.
Mr Walker used the proceeds of the screening to help cast and crew members and other Afghan filmmakers stranded in Afghanistan.
Other works in the pipeline for Ms Ebrahimi include another, week-long show as well as working on a podcast series with Mr Walker about narcotics in Afghanistan.
