Editor’s notice: Creator Qasim Rahimi writes primarily in Dari/Persian. He wrote elements of this essay in English with help, together with the usage of Google Translate. It was then edited by C.J. Janovy.
As regular, I reached the workplace at 8 within the morning. A journalist by coaching, I now served as as director of knowledge and public consciousness on the Nationwide Environmental Safety Company of Afghanistan.
I supervised a workers of 21 individuals: Our job was to offer public info to guard the setting and handle local weather change. That morning, I appeared on the day by day schedule and assigned duties to my staff.
It was Aug. 15, a Sunday. Afghanistan was going by way of troublesome instances. Every single day, information of provinces falling to the Taliban and the give up of the Afghan Nationwide Army intensified individuals’s nervousness. That day, the workplace appeared chaotic.
I may see confusion on my coworkers’ faces. All the workers, particularly the ladies, had been panicking. In the course of the Taliban’s first interval of ruling of Afghanistan and their anti-government actions whereas america forces had been current, the Taliban dedicated many crimes.
They killed ladies, youth, journalists and a whole lot of different individuals. Everybody knew this.
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One in all my colleagues requested that feminine staff be allowed to go away. By 11 a.m., rumors of the Taliban’s arrival on the gates of Kabul intensified. We determined to go away the workplace.
The roads of Kabul had been full of terrified individuals. Everybody was attempting to flee from town. It took me a very long time to make it house.
I had constructed a ravishing home with 5 residential items, which I rented out to a number of different households. I used to be well-known and trusted by native residents due to my place within the authorities.
As quickly as she noticed me, my mom calmed down somewhat. She insisted that I go away the home — we had been apprehensive that the Taliban would search our house and I’d be arrested. So I hid in a neighbor’s home. It was a tough night time; I used to be up till midnight, looking for information about what was occurring. All of the home media of Afghanistan stopped their broadcasts or broadcasted repeated applications of the previous.
BBC was the one media protecting what was occurring in Afghanistan. Former President Hamid Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the political accomplice of former Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, appeared on the TV display screen. Each talked concerning the president’s escape and the Taliban’s entry into the presidential palace.
Al Jazeera’s photos of the Taliban’s entry into the presidential palace circulated on social media. The autumn of Afghanistan was formally confirmed by the Taliban.
My nervousness intensified. I barely made it by way of the night time and left the place within the morning carrying totally different garments than regular so I wouldn’t be simply acknowledged.
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In the hunt for escape
It was promising to listen to that individuals beneath menace had been being transferred in another country by worldwide forces by way of Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport. My two older brothers, one among whom was a journalist and the second of whom labored with worldwide forces, had obtained calls to go away Afghanistan.
After just a few days in hiding, I left Afghanistan with my brother Arif Rahimi, his spouse and three youngsters, and my youthful brother, Asif Rahimi. It was painful to go away my mom alone, however I entrusted her to God.
The roads resulting in the airport had been crowded with individuals who didn’t know their vacation spot. Everybody was trying to escape.
We tried for a number of hours to enter the airfield, however every time we retreated. The gang was so dense it was arduous to get sufficient air, which elevated the chance to youngsters. The Taliban additionally used tear gasoline to disperse individuals. At 2 a.m., we managed to enter the airfield and current ourselves to the worldwide forces.
At 9 a.m. on Aug. 20, my older brother and his household had been allowed to fly; they had been knowledgeable that in a couple of minutes, Spanish army forces would take them to Spain. However I waited one other 24 hours for permission to fly.
Life within the USA
Escaping from the fear of the Taliban was excellent news for me. However shedding my homeland and being away from my household and buddies was bothering me.
Residing in a army camp with no thought what would occur to me and concern of the longer term tortured my soul greater than anything. However there have been additionally issues that gave hope to me and a whole lot of different Afghans residing within the camp.
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The type and human remedy of the troopers residing within the Fort McCoy camp was instructive for me. Their habits was very totally different from the troopers I had met in Afghanistan.
Coping with 1000’s of Afghan refugees in at some point isn’t a straightforward process, however the workers of Fort McCoy camp and the troopers residing there listened patiently, kindly and respectfully to every downside of the immigrants. Within the first few days there have been issues in getting ready and distributing meals due to the variety of individuals, however regularly this downside was solved.
Afghan ladies and youngsters residing within the camp felt essentially the most freedom. Deprivation of girls’s freedom and abuse of youngsters, even inside households, isn’t unusual in Afghanistan. However I additionally noticed males who handled their ladies and youngsters like they’d in Afghanistan — they didn’t enable their ladies in public with no burqa.
New challenges
After two months, with the assistance of help organizations, I left Fort McCoy for Mission, Kansas, in early November 2021. My sister’s household had lived there since 2018 as a result of my brother-in-law had been eligible for a particular immigrant visa for Afghans who had labored for america.
I had chosen Kansas to proceed residing in America, though I nonetheless do not know the place the wave of my life will take me. Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, a company that takes care of some Afghan immigrants in Kansas Metropolis, helped me to arrange paperwork. Within the first week, I managed to get a piece allow, however I waited months to get Social Safety.
Many individuals volunteered to assist me resolve my issues and did not let me really feel neglected. Volunteers Barbara and Eli Durante, Mary Sexton and Shawn Cooper, in addition to Catholic Charities staff Greg Bole and Jennifer Kornfeld, are names that I’ll always remember. They took my hand and helped me on the top of my poverty and want.
I began my first job in America assembling eyeglasses for Duffens Optical in Lenexa. I needed to stand for eight hours a day. For an individual who used to work with a pen, desk and laptop, this type of work was not straightforward. Within the first few days, my legs damage from exhaustion and I used to be not in a position to sleep. I used to be practical and tried to look to the longer term.
I continued my work on this division for practically 4 months. Respect, honesty, endurance and arduous work had been among the many classes I realized on this course of. For my part, the shortest definition of life in America is figure, work and work.
I’m very completely satisfied now that I’m working as an worker within the immigration division at Jewish Vocational Companies. I’ve pleasant and wonderful colleagues, I be taught from them every single day.
I discovered the individuals of Kansas Metropolis big-hearted and pleasant to immigrants. I nonetheless have lots to see and be taught right here.
I’m secure right here, I’m revered, I’ve sufficient meals to eat. However I can not overlook that my compatriots in Afghanistan wouldn’t have sufficient meals. I’m removed from my household, buddies and colleagues. They’re now enduring nice struggling.
I’m apprehensive about my household and my spouse. The husbands of my two sisters are nonetheless in Afghanistan, and each have labored on the American Embassy in Kabul and for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Each of them are certified for particular immigrant visas. Their lives are threatened. Most of their colleagues have managed to go away Afghanistan, and I hope the U.S. will assist them.
My spouse, Samia Tahiri, has been an immigrant in India for greater than 5 years. She went to India to review and has not been in a position to return to Afghanistan since 2018, the 12 months we obtained married.
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Samia supported me lots throughout this time. I hope we will likely be collectively quickly and make our goals come true. I hope my buddies in america will assist me transfer her from India, and my mom, Fatima Rahimi, and my sisters from Afghanistan. I actually respect my spouse, my household and all my buddies.
I wish to be a journalist as I used to be earlier than, however I’ve to be affected person. I do know the media expertise I introduced from Afghanistan is totally different from what I might want to be a part of this career in america. I hope I’ll have the chance to proceed my schooling. I used to be a struggle correspondent for a few years, so I do know the ache and struggling attributable to struggle.
Afghanistan misplaced every thing: human rights, ladies’s rights, civil liberties, the nationwide military, the nationwide police. However the future can nonetheless be ours. The individuals of Afghanistan are nonetheless ready for the worldwide group and america of America. An unstable Afghanistan with a terrorist regime isn’t within the curiosity of the way forward for the world.
I wish to be the voice of Afghanistan, a voice to be heard. Afghanistan doesn’t have good neighbors — everybody sees Afghanistan with grasping eyes. However the future is within the arms of us people. We have now totally different experiences, however what we have now in frequent is our future.
