Senzela Atmar and her family fled Afghanistan in 1997 during a three-day break in fighting. Twenty years later, she started a non-profit to support education in developing countries — including Afghanistan.
Through her organization, Relief Without Borders, she says she has seen schools where all the kids shared a single pencil, even before the latest takeover by the Taliban. With what’s playing out now, the group is having to shift to focusing on how it will support education for people displaced by the crisis.
It plans to begin providing supplies like tents, food and water. Atmar is also taking part in a rally this weekend in support of Afghanis.
“We’re going to have to figure out a way to educate these kids that are now living in these makeshift camps,” she said. “We’re hoping that they don’t mess with anyone in the camps. When I lived in the camps for a few years it was so unsafe.”
Atmar said when she was living there as a young girl she couldn’t find food, and tried to eat dirt. Her 13-year-old brother died after bullies in the camp — she said they were likely extremists — pushed him in front of a car.
She said watching the Taliban take power again, “We feel like what happened in the last 25 years is essentially erased.”
Imagine watching decades of progress on human rights slip away in a matter of days. That’s how some Middle Tennesseans from Afghanistan are feeling as they watch the Taliban take over the country where they were born. They say they’re also experiencing a rising sense of desperation as they try to help the people who are stranded.
In some of the greatest danger are those who aided American forces in Afghanistan over the last 20 years.
Fawad Kohistani worked as an interpreter for the US until 2014. He was resettled in Clarksville last year, but his family, some of whom also helped American forces, weren’t able to get the same Special Immigrant Visas. He said the Taliban has already searched their house twice. His parents, five siblings, their spouses and their children are all living under one roof.
“They said ‘we are not going out’ except if they need something for eating. They are sending like a little baby. He is my nephew. He is five years (old).”
Kohistani said they’re having to send the boy to the market because his face is the only one in the family that won’t be associated with aiding American forces.
Meanwhile, Ezaz Noori of Nashville is also worried sick about his family. They’re living off a couple months’ worth of food that his father bought just before the Taliban took power.
“There was some gunshots right outside my home and they’re — so far they’re okay,” he said during an interview Tuesday.
But Noori worries his family is in danger. He worked with US Special Forces until 2018 and his family, too, supported American efforts in Afghanistan.
He said several members of his family have the paperwork to qualify for visas, but they aren’t getting responses from the embassy, which has been moved to inside the Kabul airport and scaled back to a skeleton crew.
“I don’t know how to say and what to say after the 20 years of my service,” Noori sobbed quietly, catching his breath. “I can see all these terrorists coming back to my country.”
No clear way out
Noori said that even if they did get the visas, it’s unclear how they could safely get to the airport, with Taliban checkpoints along the way and right outside.
“During the day it’s not possible, but at night if they can just travel with children to the airport, and then somehow the US can help them. Put them in a plane. Get them out of there.” Noori paused. “But I don’t know if that’s going to work or not.”
Noori said he still believes that some of the progress on human rights from the last 20 years can be salvaged, but the window is closing. He said the US should support humanitarian efforts and send a strong message to the Taliban that it backs a united government, with representation from different religious and ethnic groups.
And the issue that hits closest to home — Noori said the government needs to evacuate the Afghans who, like him, put themselves in harm’s way to support America’s mission. But with President Joe Biden’s self-imposed deadline to end military flights out of the country by the end of this month, the odds of that happening are not looking good.
Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn has set up a helpline for Tennesseans with loved ones who need to evacuate Afghanistan. Her office can be reached at [email protected].
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM