Many of us have been anxiously awaiting the one-year anniversary of the fall of the elected Afghan government and the takeover of the Taliban. Last week I posted about the current state of Afghan women and the setbacks for human rights since the Taliban took over. But today, I want to share with you the beauty of Afghanistan and not her suffering. No matter what the politics, or who is in power Afghans will always hold on to their beautiful culture through food, hospitality, and pride in their heritage.

I invite you to learn about the beauty of Afghanistan through all the symbols I’ve included in this heart that personify our ancient culture.

August 15th is the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover. It has been heart-wrenching to watch the Taliban roll back all women’s basic human rights — to be educated, to earn a living, to leave their homes freely and be an active part of their community.

The outpouring and incredible support of The Kite Runner on Broadway has sparked a conversation about Afghan culture that pulls away from what many consider the country to encompass. I am excited to have been a part of this production that is unlike anything Broadway has seen before.

So this summer I made my Broadway debut with the stage production of The Kite Runner. As a Cultural Advisor and Script Consultant, the Kite Runner Broadway speaks to me on a personal level. My family immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan after the Russian invasion in 1979. Like Baba in the Kite Runner, my parents lost everything – wealth, status, family, friends – when they became nameless refugees in Northern California. Like Amir, the protagonist, I learned to straddle two cultures and balance the tightrope of cultural expectations between my family’s Afghan values and the lure of living an ‘American’ life.

Did you know that one of the true symbols of the Afghan New Year is Haft Mewa? This mixture of seven different nuts and fruits is a must-have to ring in the Afghan New Year.

The KITE RUNNER is coming to Broadway and I need your help getting the word out to the Afghan community so we can consider New York-based Afghan stage actors for the role.

And happy fall to all of you long-time readers. I hope you will take advantage of the beautiful cooking pumpkins dotting grocery stores to make kadoo, braised Afghan pumpkin with a garlicky yogurt sauce.

It’s heartening to see Afghan cuisine is slowly making its way to the mainstream. I was recently featured in a HuffPost article, The Comfort and Joy of Making Afghan Food, that highlighted Afghan comfort food, family traditions, and how the recent collapse of the Afghan government has affected Afghan-Americans.

As I noted in my video, What Just Happened in Afghanistan, Afghanistan has fallen off the front pages of the news outlets but here on Afghan Culture Unveiled, we have Afghanistan in the forefront of our thoughts, all the time.

That is why I’m sharing some inspiring, thought-provoking, and informative ways you can continue engaging with Afghanistan that will warm your belly and open your mind.

The past six weeks have been very challenging for me and my family as we have watched the Taliban roll back the gains for women, girls, and all the markers of a civil society granted to the Afghan people through the Afghan constitution. Yesterday I was inspired to record this video to share my perspective on What Just Happened in Afghanistan and how important it is that we don’t forget about the Afghan people. If you like what I have to say, please share the video widely so others can participate in mitigating the potential economic and humanitarian crisis that is about to unfold in Afghanistan.

The Woman who escaped from the Taliban

I met the woman who became the director of our schools, let’s call her Zan, in 2006. She escaped from the Taliban just four days ago. I can’t share her identity because her husband and 6 children are still in Afghanistan. We need your help to get Zan’s family out of Afghanistan, too.

My family left Afghanistan in 1979, after the Russian invasion, but Zan’s family couldn’t.

Instead, Zan finished high school and attended Kabul University during the Russian occupation. While at college, she married a wonderful man, an accomplished doctor, and started a family. After college, Zan became a sought-after teacher.

Sadly war was ever-present. The Russians were driven from Afghanistan but the country descended into five years of civil war. While her mother-in-law helped with her growing family, Zan, despite bouts of anxiety and depression, joined a teacher’s collective and began advocating for girls' education.

On Tuesday, I’m launching a grassroots social media campaign, #ActionforAfghans to elevate the voices of Afghan people by mobilizing Afghans in the diaspora and white, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ allies to take action.

We have created beautiful, positive, and inspiring posts (such as the one above) which you can share on your social media. We need your help!

Call to action:

If you are an active Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter user and you want to help me get the word out with the #ActionforAfghans social media campaign, please email actionforafghans@gmail.com and we’ll share the details of the campaign with you.

If you are wondering what the future holds for Afghan women and girls, watch this video of a talk I recently did at the Commonwealth of San Francisco where we discussed what ending America’s longest war could mean to the Afghan people.

In this post and introduce my newest video which cover how regime changes, visionary leaders, and wars have affected the lives of Afghan women and how power-sharing with the Taliban could undo the gains in the past twenty years. People often ask me why Afghan women have ALWAYS been oppressed. It was this recurring question that inspired me to make this video to show the progress, gains, and setbacks in the past 100 years and how they have shaped the current climate for Afghan women.

We start with the reign of King Amanullah and Queen Soraya who attempted to modernize Afghanistan and gave unprecedented rights to women. Then we go on to cover the ‘Era of Peace’ 1933-1973 when Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan and progress was slow and steady. During the Russian occupation, many rights were given to Afghan women but it was ineffectual in the rural areas where Afghans were being slaughtered by Russian airstrikes and women were losing their homes. The video ends with the current peace talks with the Taliban and how power-sharing could affect the lives of Afghan women.

I hope you enjoy this docu-demo (recorded pre-pandemic) showcasing the vibrant Afghan community of Northern California with a field trip to the “Little Kabul” district of Fremont, California, and a demonstration of my favorite Nowroz food, Haft Mewa, Seven Fruit Compote. Please feel free to share this post and any of my YouTube videos with friends, family, and on your social media. I write these posts and make the videos as a way to share my culture. Trust me, these are not money makers but I do appreciate your effort in helping me get the word out about Afghan culture and food with the bigger world.