“The Taliban are coming.”
That rumor, provided by Afghani officials, was all Mina’s father needed in 1990 to pack up the family and flee their home in Kabul. Within 24 hours, Mina, her parents and her brother traveled the back roads to Pakistan with only what they could carry, leaving everything else behind.
As Afghanistan expelled the former Soviet rulers, power was valued more than the lives of people. Groups like the Taliban emerged, using fear and violence to control people. Anyone caught trying to escape faced imprisonment and torture. Mina knows of people who were killed. After traveling for three days and nights, they arrived in Pakistan. They lived there for 18 months, waiting for immigration papers to relocate to America.
Unlike immigrants who relocate to America to improve their lives, Mina’s family came here to save their lives. Through education and determination, Mina was able to establish a successful life for herself.
Mina, who is Muslim, does not wear the traditional coverings or scarves. She asked that only her first name be used because of the current negative sentiment toward Afghani people.
She explained that life in Pakistan was stricter than in Afghanistan. “It was horrible there. I had to cover myself completely. In Kabul, I dressed conservatively but never was forced to cover myself head to toe,” Mina said. In Pakistan, Mina’s father, a doctor, worked in a hospital for refugees, and her mother helped start a school for Afghani girls. But Mina’s father hoped news would arrive saying that it was safe to return home. Two months after their escape, however, they heard that the Taliban had taken over Kabul and their house had been looted and bombed. Mina’s father knew they could not go back.
Set for America, the family already had ties to help and support them in the states. Mina’s aunt and uncle had settled there, having left Afghanistan 32 years before the emergence of the Taliban. They had relocated to America in pursuit of a better life. Mina’s older sister was also in the United States, attending college.
When Mina, her brother and parents finally arrived in America, they settled in Connecticut. Mina has always had a positive image of America: “It was always the place to be,” she said. “If you work hard you definitely get your dreams.” Mina, who was 15 at the time, said the culture shock she experienced was caused by more than starting her junior year of high school in a foreign country.
She spoke no English and attended school where the majority of the population was white and rich. Mina taught herself English and got a job as a cashier at the local Stop & Shop supermarket. After high school she attended Fairfield University, a Jesuit college in Connecticut, where again the population was mainly white.
“I felt like a stranger,” Mina said. She chose the college for its proximity to her family. After college Mina wanted to get out of Connecticut and experience more cultural diversity. She moved to New Jersey where she earned her masters in molecular biology at Seton Hall. Mina is now attending the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in her third year of dentistry.
Mina explained that her father had always promoted education as the means to achieve a better life, a trait many of the older Afghani generation possessed, very much unlike the new war-driven generation that the American media portray.
Mina, now 27 years old, says she doesn’t like talking about her past in Afghanistan. Living in Belleville, N.J., and going to school in Newark, she is exposed to many cultures and is happy with her life: “I don’t look back—this is home now.”
Yvonne Lardizabal is a journalism and media studies major at Rutgers-Newark.
