Tragic love story behind drowning
Anisa Ghanizada and husband Noorullah Habibi were almost inseparable during their tragically brief married life.
But on Tuesday, Noorullah, an Auckland University student, had a mid-semester exam to prepare for and couldn’t join Anisa and the rest of his family for a beach outing to West Auckland.
‘‘She kept saying ‘you should go, I can’t enjoy myself as much when you are with me’,’’ Noorullah recalled on Friday. ‘‘I told her ‘ it’s better you go out rather than stay at home, I’ll be busy working’.’’
A few hours later, ‘‘ kindhearted, strong’’ Anisa is believed to have been swept off rocks at Whites Beach, north of Piha, and despite the efforts of surf lifesavers who pulled her from the water, could not be revived, a tragedy that has left Noorullah inconsolable and the Afghan community in New Zealand in mourning.
Anisa arrived from landlocked Afghanistan in January after Noorullah secured a visa for her.
They had been engaged for a few years, and plans for a large traditional wedding were curtailed by the worsening Covid-19 pandemic, so they opted for a small ceremony instead.
Noorullah’s father Askar, who worked as an interpreter for the New Zealand Defence Force, mother Soghra and one of his two younger brothers made the trip to North Piha Beach where they had a picnic lunch.
Askar says he and a friend had been looking after the young children in the group while the women were chatting.
Anisa decided to go for a walk, and took the track past the Te Waha Point Lookout to Whites Beach. About 15 minutes later, she phoned Soghra to say she’d found a nice spot and suggested the other women join her.
When the women arrived, they saw Anisa’s body in the water.
A rescue operation involving
lifesavers and passersby pulled her from the water, but she had passed away. Askar Habibi said they were told Anisa had been on a rock near the water when a wave crashed over her and washed her into the ocean.
Her death, which has been referred to the coroner, was one of six major incidents Surf Life Saving’s Northern Region attended this week at West Auckland beaches. Six people were saved, and two died.
On Friday, three family members were swept out to sea at O’Neill Bay just north of Te Henga (Bethells) Beach. By the time lifeguards arrived the 45-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were back on shore, the woman and boy were losing consciousness.
Lifeguards gave them oxygen and performed first-aid until the Westpac Rescue Helicopter arrived and took the woman to hospital. The boy had improved enough to be taken back to the Bethells surf club for further treatment by St John paramedics.
Anisa Ghanizada’s death has deeply affected the tight- knit Afghan community in New Zealand, many of whom are ethnic Hazara former NZDF interpreters and their families.
‘‘We cannot transfer our feelings by saying the words. We can’t, we can’t,’’ father- in- law Askar Habibi said. ‘‘Everyone is still in shock.’’
Anisa was buried at Manukau Memorial Gardens on Thursday.
‘‘ I buried her myself,’’ Noorullah said.
‘‘ I’m still in a state of shock. It’s really hard. Going to my bedroom and I can’t place is empty.’’
‘‘She loved me so much that all she needed was me. She kept saying ‘I don’t need anything in this world when you are with me’.’’
Anisa had been taking English through a specialist refugee class at Selwyn College and hoped to become a make-up artist.
‘‘She was going to her English classes with a hope, with a goal, she wanted to learn English as quick as possible and get a makeup artist degree and start working in that field,’’ he said. ‘‘ Her life was too short.’’
Noorullah had thrown himself into academic study since arriving at the age of 15 with only a basic grasp of English. After becoming a student leader at Palmerston North’s Freyberg High School, he enthusiastically pursued a medical career and is in his second year of a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in physiology.
‘‘But now, all of that is gone. I can’t study, I can’t focus. Who am I going to make a future for? She was all I had.’’
Askar worked as an interpreter for the NZDF’s Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan for several years.
He became the ‘‘eyes and ears’’ for the Kiwi soldiers, attending meetings with local leaders and liaising with members of the community who had links to insurgents, work that placed his family in danger.
The family resettled in New Zealand in 2013, and the same year Askar received the New Zealand Operational Service Medal and the New Zealand General Service Medal Afghanistan. see her, her