{"id":75011,"date":"2026-04-10T16:19:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=75011"},"modified":"2026-11-01T00:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T22:18:14","slug":"youll-never-be-a-man-or-will-you","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/masculinity\/youll-never-be-a-man-or-will-you\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You’ll never be a man\u2019 \u2013 or will you?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\n\tMasculinity<\/a><\/div>\r\n

\r\n \u2018You’ll never be a man\u2019 \u2013 or will you? <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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Growing up in Afghanistan, Sajad never fitted the usual image of masculinity. Today he is looking for his own definition of it \u2013 and for the courage to reinvent himself.
\nBy Reihaneh Kheirabadi<\/a>, Bakeer Bakeer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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Childhood wounds <\/strong>don’t simply heal when we grow up. Not even when we think we have long since left them behind. Early experiences often linger quietly \u2013 barely visible \u2013 but with lasting force. A patriarchal, power-driven society claims countless victims \u2013 and many of them remain psychologically trapped in patriarchal patterns and systems for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story deals with personal experiences from Sajad’s life. He grew up in Afghanistan, and tells us about his childhood, his migration to Germany and the independence he has gained. Meeting Sajad gave us the chance to question the structures of this system and to look beyond them \u2013 which is why we want to share his story and let him tell it in his own words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I can feel <\/strong>that loneliness, violence or self-destruction, for example, aren’t down to me, but to a system that teaches us men from an early age never to show vulnerability.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

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Feelings don’t disappear<\/strong> just because you suppress them. They find other ways to show themselves, inwards or outwards, Sajad adds.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

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Chapter I:<\/h2>\n\n

Growing up in Afghanistan<\/h3>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n\n\n\n\n

Even as a child,<\/strong> my future was less my own decision than a script others had written for me. Before I could even form an idea of who I wanted to be, there were already clear pictures of the man I was supposed to become. My father imagined I would become a cleric. Later he wanted me to win a taekwondo medal, like Nikpai, the athlete who won Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal in taekwondo at the Beijing Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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