Emily Mellen 00:07

Welcome to Global Research Bytes. I'm Emily Mellen, and I'm here with Omaid Sharifi, who is visiting UVA as part of the Democratic Futures Project, and UVA Student Samman Akbarzada, to talk about their work in activism in Afghanistan and beyond. Omaid and Samman, take us back to your childhoods in Afghanistan. What was it like, and how have things changed since then? What challenges are the Afghan people currently facing?

Samman Akbarzada 00:32

Thank you so much, dear Emily for having us today here. Afghanistan was lovely. That's always what I say. We had our beautiful country, our culture, our tradition, and it was something that was hard earned over the 20 years of progress. So that's why we truly cherished it. And I was someone, somebody was born post 2021, sorry, 2001 so my experiences, of course, is different, because Taliban, to me, was just a word, just a horror story that I heard from my parents. I never faced them, and I was in the city, and I went to school, although we did face some challenges, threats were always there, especially after 2010 you coming back to your home in a single piece was never promised, even though I was just going to high school, but we still got together on Thursday nights, Friday nights, and had our parties and found joy and gratitude and our resilience and to not succumb to distress and sadness, and that's something I learned from my parents, specifically my mom, who had went through the Civil War, but still built a home again from scratch and but unfortunately, we lost our homes again. For my mom, it was the second time in August 2021 the forceful takeover of the Taliban led to its collapse, and ever since, it's been a dystopian nightmare, specifically for activists, artists and women. Women have been the main target. The first thing the Taliban did was dismantle the Women's Affairs Ministry and then ban them from education beyond sixth grade, from works or in public places. Now this is a war. The war has not ended, but the difference is that the women in Afghanistan are like fighting it alone.

Omaid Sharifi 02:39

Very Good day to all of your... all the people who are listening to your podcast, I'm very pleased that I'm here today. You may you asked a very good question about our childhood and how it was in Afghanistan. I always remember Kabul being a very beautiful capital, and that is because you have beautiful mountains, you have beautiful river going through the capital. You have hills, you have everything that makes a capital very beautiful. And every time I look back at those years, and I'm somebody who was born, raised, educated, and lived all my life in Afghanistan, and this is the first time I'm living outside my country, I think it brings a lot of beautiful memories of belonging, of my identity, my homeland, and I miss my mountains. I miss every time, because every time I will look up to one of those mountains in Kabul and I will find my way. I will find a direction. Now in Virginia, beautiful state, but sometimes I lose myself because I can find those mountains for my direction and the feeling of loss, you really don't get it until you lose your country. And by losing your country, you lose your identity, you lose a lot, and it's a big loss that it never fills up. You could find a home anywhere in the world. You could find a good, privileged life. But I think that dignity, that ownership that comes with your country is never felt. So, for me, looking back, I remember playing soccer, football, on all those streets, meeting my friends in every part of that beautiful capital, traveling to different parts of the country, speaking different languages, different people, and the food, you know, I can't talk enough about the food, and then the people, the kindness, chivalry, the hospitality. I think those are all the things which define Afghanistan for me.

Emily Mellen 04:58

Thank you. That's beautiful. And your senses of loss are palpable. So, tell us about what this has inspired you to do. Tell us about your work, and how do you seek to intervene in these challenges, in these challenging times?

Samman Akbarzada 05:12

Yeah, thank you for that question. The work I think, didn't begin when I left my home. I was an activist when I was there, and I voiced the struggles of just the patriarchal society and what the Taliban had done before in my poems and my novel and my dream was for us, the youth who will, who will change the narrative of our country to to cherish that, that story, that resilience, that new Afghanistan. But unfortunately, my the publication of my debut novel coincided with the collapse, and I was given five hours to pack my life in a backpack and leave. But I am glad that I didn't stop. I didn't stop writing, I didn't stop being a voice, and I found avenues in Charlottesville. For the purpose of this podcast, I do want to talk about Charlottesville Tulips. It's a community engagement program where 150 women and children from predominantly Afghan and Syrian families refugees come together to do artwork. There are English classes for the women, there's food, there's just a little Kabul. I always say that we create for ourselves, for the people who have been through so much, and it's just a lovely environment to have them here and watch the women who sacrificed everything they had to raise their children, and now they have this classroom to themselves, and they are coming in front of the board and speaking in English and laughing and just their joy and their love. When I'm inside that bus, it's like, gosh, I sometimes don't want to get down, because this is just amazing to hear them talk. At one point, they're talking about their loved ones back in home, their child back at home, and wondering if they will ever reunite. But on the other hand, then they're talking about, Oh, what about the other party that we will have together? When are we going to get together again? So, it's just the resilience that I find and their smiles, it fills my heart with so much love and joy.

Omaid Sharifi 07:26

This is beautiful. As an artivist and I work for art social movement organization. It's called ArtLords. We originated in Afghanistan, and then we worked in other parts of the world as well, especially in South Asia and Central Asia. And we do some work in Middle East now as well. And now we are an American organization based in Virginia. So, for me, coming to UVA, and bringing ArtLords' lived experiences and projects to UVA, and also getting help from the UVA students, and then professors like Steve Parks, students like Samman and others who are happily helping our projects implement all over the world, not only in Afghanistan. I think it gives me a lot of hope that we the positive forces as I call them... ArtLords, UVA... We all connect our islands, our islands of positivity, our islands of impact, and we are making a meaningful difference in the lives of be [it] at-risk artists in Ukraine or artivists in Afghanistan or women rights activists in Pakistan or other parts of the world. So, we bring our our noble intentions, good actions or positive energy to bring a bit of relief, healing, empathy to those parts of the world. And that translates into projects that we have, like "I Stand with You" campaign, which is for the female artists of Afghanistan, where UVA will particularly help us help those female artists in Afghanistan, through painted meditation, through art therapy sessions, bring their art, smuggle their art to places like UVA, exhibit those art, read those poems that's written by the women in Afghanistan. I think that is the kind of impact I see that the students and faculty of UVA are making, and I'm really proud that I am here today, and I look forward to a long-term relationship with this institution.

Emily Mellen 09:27

Thank you for touching on that about how UVA, for both of you, has been crucial to continuing your activism here in Virginia. Can you talk a little bit about the strengths of the university that it has in being able to promote artivism and activism and how UVA community members can get involved in work like yours?

Samman Akbarzada 09:50

That's a very important question. Thank you for asking that. I think UVA is a great place, a very privileged place to be. And I do see that, and I'm so glad that community engagement programs such as Charlottesville Tulips exist so we all can sort of broaden our horizons and get the leway and opportunity to meet people who are who look different than us, who speak a different language, and it's wonderful to see that that's happening to UVA. And of course, Charlottesville Tulips has volunteers who are students at UVA, so it's just an amazing scenery when I'm looking at Afghan kids connecting with student volunteers from UVA, because each are learning so much from each other, and women communicating in their broken English with a student at UVA and watching them laugh and understanding each other beyond the language, because language is a barrier, but when we see from the heart, that barrier is no longer there, and programs like Charlottesville Tulips provides that opportunity for us, and I'm really, really happy for it. I guess my sisterly advice would be to, let's just resist the urge to to sort of justify our biases, perhaps to mainstream media and and go and talk and know the stories of people who are different than you, that helps us grow. I have learned so much being in UVA, a place where it's completely different, a different world. I but I have learned so much from my peers, from the empathy of my mentor, Bonnie Gordon, and Marjan, who both are the co-founders of Charlottesville Tulips, and to see their empathy and to make this program and for whatever they're doing. So my advice or words would be to, if you want to make a friend, come and join Charlottesville Tulips, we will always be happy to have you.

Omaid Sharifi 11:59

Yeah, count me in. Now I want to come in. And I think we are in a very privileged position coming from outside UVA, especially like living and being in other places of the world when there's not that much privilege, and you're facing with a lot of poverty, violence and none of that. So when we come into institutions like UVA, we see how much, how much resources they have, and how with little effort, they can make a huge difference in the life of a lot of people and organizations like ArtLords or Charlottesville Tulips and all of that. So, I think what I bring with our projects is that I really want to make sure that the students and the community, they realize their privilege first. The second thing is that with these resources that they have, they can help a lot of people. And getting those resources and combining it with our efforts, I think it can make a huge difference for a lot of people, a lot of good people, I say. And these good people are human rights defenders, artists, activists all over the world who does not have any of the resources that we have, any of the safety that we have. So, I think, with that, I just have to, you know, life gets very busy in the US, and then people have so many things to do. But then, when we come in and we just remind them of what they can do. I think I see a lot of willing people, especially at UVA, who are standing up and saying, "Okay, let's do this." And I hope that by experimenting and bringing ArtLords to UVA, we get those hands up and say that, okay, we want to help. We want to help a scholar. We want to help artists. We want to do an exhibition, all of that, which makes a huge difference, and then the life has all those people that we work with.

Emily Mellen 13:49

I hope to see those hands going up too. Thank you both so much for coming and speaking with me today.

Samman Akbarzada 13:54

Thank you.

Omaid Sharifi 13:54

Thank you.