Afghan Americans are preparing to welcome tens of thousands of new refugees into their community, even as they reel from the bloody end of the U.S.-led war in their home country
09/03/2021 04:30 AM EDTBALTIMORE — In a brick building in downtown Baltimore, across the street from a psychic, sits The Helmand.
The couple met in Afghanistan in 2001, when Azim returned to visit his home country from the U.S. for the first time since 1982, when the country was convulsed by another guerrilla war with another occupying power — the Soviet Union. He escaped the country in the ‘80s with his family for a highly compelling reason: he and his dad ended up on a ”kill list.”
Like thousands of other girls back home, her nieces are in a state of constant worry and it’s only been getting worse. “I’m upset for my family,” she says, her voice shaking and hoarse from a lack of sleep. who have immigrated since 1980. Maryland has been one of their more popular destinations over the years.
The three have never met but they greet each other like family. For the entire dinner, Muzzammil will only address Azim and Fatima as Kaka and Khala, which mean “uncle” and “aunt,” no matter how many times Azim and Fatima try to get him to use their names. Azim is the first to speak up, leaning forward, “The intention was probably good to free the country from the atrocities of the Taliban. However, what we see today is back to worse than it was before,” he says. Fatima nods. She agrees with everything her husband just said.
I ask Muzzammil about his feelings as an Afghan American watching what’s happened in his parent’s home country. He says growing up, his dad took the family back every four years or so to Jalalabad, a rural city to the east of Kabul. Two things always stuck out to him, he recalls: the American presence and the sadness of his family in the country, even after the Taliban were first defeated.
He’s furious at the Biden administration for the process — “it’s so frustrating” — and with how the pullout went, despite the number of people ultimately evacuated. When I point it out, he laughs like a kid caught trying to pull a fast one. He says he refuses to use their real name for one big reason: He doesn’t think they deserve it.
The family of nine piled into a car and headed to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. As they were driving, two suicide bombers struck a crowd they were hoping to be a part of right outside the airport, killing scores of Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.
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