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Shadi Khan Saif

Shadi Khan Saif

The Guardian

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Nothing prepared me for losing my mother. But in Islam, to mourn someone means keeping them alive in our actions

Nothing prepared me for losing my mother. But in Islam, to mourn someone means keeping them alive in our actions

Mum was kind and gentle in a way that felt so natural. She raised all five of us pretty much on her own after Dad passed away. Those were not easy...

03.05.2026 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest won’t erase the pain for Afghans – but it shows Australia is willing to face uncomfortable truths

Even for Afghans like me, the details of what some of Australia’s SAS soldiers had been accused of in Afghanistan came to light very late. They only...

14.04.2026 10

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

When your home country is ravaged by war, is it possible to stay neutral?

Living in London, my elder brother – someone I have always looked up to – makes good use of his relative proximity to our ancestral home in...

20.03.2026 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Many Afghan Australians felt grateful to the Liberal party. That faith is shaken

In my tough early days in Melbourne, when everything still felt slightly unreal, I was introduced to Suzy through a cricket magazine editor based in...

21.02.2026 40

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

My youngest is starting school for the first time. How can I best preserve his relentless curiosity?

02.02.2026 40

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

My local pool feels like a cultural refuge – a small, steamy world where accents mingle and minds reset

12.01.2026 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Australia’s stance on Afghan cricket is flawed – and deeply painful for people like me. There is another path

02.01.2026 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

My first cricket hero was Imran Khan. Now I close my eyes and replay Mitchell Starc’s bullet-paced yorkers

09.12.2025 40

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

My kids start sentences in one language and end in another. I hope school doesn’t shrink their joyous, noisy worlds

17.11.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

For a few dollars, I bought a childhood game from the op-shop. Watching my kids play felt like time had folded in on itself

06.11.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Spirituality isn’t rigid dogma. It’s a living, breathing practice that helps make sense of an incomprehensible world

19.10.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

From Karachi’s crowded markets and Kabul’s alleys to Australia’s vast sky: budgies are for me fragments of memory

02.10.2025 10

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

My calls and emails to family in Afghanistan go unanswered. The Taliban’s internet shutdown has left us all helpless

01.10.2025 10

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Of all the languages I know, Persian is the one that speaks directly to me and offers a new way of being

25.08.2025 30

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Amid the chaos after the fall of Kabul, two men became my lifeline

15.08.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Fragrant smoke on a wintry Melbourne night rekindles friendships and evokes memories of home in far-off Kabul

21.07.2025 30

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Australia’s multiculturalism lives mostly on the surface. Inclusion without voice is tokenism

14.07.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

The concept of ‘naseeb’ offers a way to stay grounded even when the world refuses to make sense

15.06.2025 10

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Muslim Australians are crying out to be heard. Will the major parties listen to us?

28.04.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif

Ramadan is not just about abstaining from food. It’s about truthfulness – something we can all learn from

23.03.2025 20

The Guardian

Shadi Khan Saif