I have been walking with a ragged step, as if a ghost was pulling back my shoulder.
Colleagues, students, artists, friends from Afghanistan sending emails of despair.
Fathers lamenting their daughters’ futures.
(I will not go numb.)
I am learning how to listen to my limitations.
To know what I’m working with.
To breathe into, and honor, what is here and available and alive.
(I won’t succumb to hopelessness.)
War is poison.
WE MUST TAKE SERIOUSLY THE WORK OF ENDING ALL WAR.
I want to say so many things about cycles of violence, the ripples of the past tearing into our present…
(But first, I will remember the deep love and respect my Afghan friends shared with me. Love needs to be felt and shared before disconnection sets in.)
Many of you know I worked, on and off, in Afghanistan from 2010-2015 training theater groups and NGO workers to use participatory storytelling as a method of community building, reconciliation, and deep dialogue on issues that concern them. (You can read some of my posts from that time here.)
That sincere work exploring self, family, story, history, and culture created a web of reciprocity and learning that has endured. I now count myself as extended family to many of my colleagues. I will not disparage the lives, work, culture, and spirit of Afghans who have poured their hearts into creating a better tomorrow for all who call Afghanistan home. Afghanistan is still home to many shining souls.
In the spirit of making home through sharing love across borders, I am inviting you to join our Mutual Aid efforts underfoot. Yes we hear of the monumental tasks at hand, ones even our mighty military can’t seem to solve. Yet thousands of micro-movements can dig channels of freedom.
We mustn’t give up hope. People to people connections are small but mighty.
Remember this? That big ship did get free!
Thank you, each one of you, who have sent warm wishes and your love. My friends and colleagues appreciate being remembered.
Right now I am organizing on behalf of FOUR artists and their families. Two are in Kabul, one is in Jalalabad, and another couple have smuggled themselves across to Quetta, Pakistan. These are large families and require many types of support.
The work I am doing is: finding and getting them on TRUSTED evacuation lists, researching and accessing visa opportunities to any country they qualify for, helping them with options for crossing the border by foot/car, and thinking through plans for the long haul.
This is happening through an informal yet deeply connected assembly of artists and human rights workers who believe that creative efforts will make a way out of no way.
For those looking for a way to get involved and be in solidarity with these efforts, we need to:
Get people across land borders as plane evacuations are rare and won’t likely manifest to the degree we hope. Once across a border, pickups and safe passage to a temporary home must be arranged. This cannot happen via Air BnB it has to come through trusted hands. (Are you in India or Pakistan or have close trusted connections there who are willing to help? Let me know. We already have an amazing caravan of theater workers in Pakistan working in solidarity across various cities.)
Get people into visa and resettlement programs they qualify for and pay the fees associated with them.
Get cash to people who might need to support their families for up to a year while their paperwork is processed. **No embassies are open in Afghanistan and people need to be available in person at a foreign Embassy to be interviewed for any type of visa. This means leaving their homes and lives behind - likely for good.
[Side note: while there is a lot of “busy work” my main role is to offer steadfast support, an ear to listen, and gentle affirmation as I follow their lead. Families have to make life-altering decisions that will have generational impacts. They know the best course of action, not me nor others]
I am collecting funds through Venmo to do all of the above.
If Venmo isn’t your thing, email me and we can find a method that works best for you.
If giving to an individual isn’t your thing: consider donating to Women for Afghan Women or the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association.
Good work is happening via personal relationships built over decades. These efforts are person to person, nimble and able to assist as things change in an instant. They happen at the speed of trust (thank you adrienne maree brown) which, right now, is very quick.
OTHER TO-DOs
US residents: call your Congress person - Senator and House Member. Ask them to expand the evacuation, resettlement, and visa programs for Afghan nationals. Ask that they offer Afghan nationals TPS (Temporary Protected Status.)
Those in the US sign this petition from Afghans for a New Tomorrow.
WHY?
> > > Right now the P1 and P2 visas are offered to very few people. Those who worked directly for the U.S. government in Afghanistan or for a U.S. funded organization.
When I was in Afghanistan, US officials would constantly encourage groups to detach from US support and become their own, fully independent, Afghan-run formations. And many did! And now, those not attached to the US through funding are ineligible for special visas.
(I want to use so many emojis right now)
BREATHE. . .
Imagine those you love at ease, free, and safe. Imagine Afghan families with them, as their neighbors and classmates and extended family.
Make the moves now, that will bring that into being.
I’ll be updating folks through this blog. Keep in touch and email me if you want to talk privately. Feel free to share this with others and let’s fortify the human chain of love and care that is stretching across the globe.
We have all been stretched to the limit this past year and a half, but we have found there was room to grow. Let’s remember we can keep expanding, with love, even when we feel utterly shattered.
Deep gratitude for being in my life, Kayhan.
Let the sunshine in.