How an Australian veteran and an Afghan refugee found healing through art and friendship

Kat Rae, 45, served in Afghanistan, as did her husband, who died by suicide in 2017. Mursal Azizi, 33, came to Australia as an Afghan refugee. The pair, both artists, have found a deep comfort in their friendship.

Kat: In February, 2025, a friend introduced me to Mursal. We met at a cafe in North Fitzroy and connected straight away – as artists and as people with a connection to her homeland. She’d fled Kabul after the Taliban came to power in 2021...