Nazir, his wife Samra, and their two children spent their first Fourth of July holiday in America this year. They escaped Afghanistan on that chaotic day last August, as the last U.S. troops withdrew and the Taliban took over. Their journey to the Monterey Peninsula was made possible by the kindness of strangers: a group of neighbors, and the friends of those neighbors, in Marina.
Even finding a place where they now live, a small apartment attached to a local church, was accomplished by the efforts of those kind neighbors. The immigrant family left everything behind when they fled.
To protect relatives still living in Afghanistan, the family’s last name is omitted from this story.
Nazir was born in Kabul, went to high school and eventually received a business degree from a university in India. He worked briefly for a U.S. contractor. Not long after starting that job, he began receiving threats from anti-government forces. Samra was threatened as well, for attending a university in pursuit of her dream of becoming a doctor, because the Taliban oppose education for women. One day, a man approached her on her way to the university.
“He said, 'You are the wife of Nazir and I know you. I will kill him and I will force marry you,’” Samra said.
She would be forced to marry a Taliban member.
After that, Nazir quit his job with the contractor and Samra gave up her dream of becoming a doctor and left the university. Instead of improving, things suddenly got worse.
“At night, when I was sleeping, everything was normal, but when I woke up, there was no government,” Nazir said.
Nazir arranged for the necessary paperwork to leave. Late one night he received a call telling him to be at a location near the Kabul airport at 5 a.m. the next morning. He was also given a code that would tell U.S. forces he and his family were approved to leave.
He had just six hours notice. The Taliban had closed the banks so he couldn’t withdraw any money. He didn’t know where he would be going or what he could carry, so the family took nothing. They raced to the airport and abandoned the car, their last valuable possession, on the chaotic streets of Kabul.
The couple and their two children were taken to Abu Dhabi where the family spent nine months in a refugee camp. It was there that Samra became pregnant with their third child.
Near the end of their stay in Abu Dhabi and halfway around the world, a group of neighbors in Marina began exploring the possibility of sponsoring an Afghan family to enter the U.S. and eventually become citizens.
U.S. immigration was overwhelmed with the number of refugees from Afghanistan and had established sponsorship circles — groups of private citizens who would help refugees resettle. That’s where the group of Marina neighbors come in. At one of their monthly poker nights, Bob Brunson suggested the group become sponsors.
The Marina neighbors began to put together a resettlement plan. None of them understood what they were undertaking. What followed was a blizzard of details and documents. It started with five of the members getting FBI background checks.
“We all had to take part in getting the kids in school, getting people medical (coverage), getting the folks their Social Security card, getting their right to work paperwork,” Brunson said.
There was so much to do. Soon the small group of neighbors began to grow.
“We had friends and family members that all wanted to get involved. So, they donated furniture, they donated gift cards, they donated money, they brought bicycles and TVs and all kinds of stuff. So just about anything this family needed was provided by these friends,” Brunson said.
Then, in late May, the group received notice the refugee family would arrive the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. The group had still not located a place for the family to stay.
A friend connected them with a local church that had an empty furnished apartment the family can use for the next six months.
“I mean, what a generous thing for a Protestant denomination to do for an Islamic couple that they don't even know,” Brunson said.
A Rabbi from Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel has set up a fund where anyone can give money for the family and receive a tax deduction. Money can be sent to DunesSponors@gmail.com. Be sure to indicate the donation is for the Afghan family. Brunson calls it a “real ecumenical deal” and says it has renewed his trust and confidence in humanity.
For Nazir, the Fourth of July holiday was a time to give thanks. “I'm alive with my family members, my wife and (the) coming baby. I'm thankful of God and thankful of the U.S. government,” Nazir said.
Their daughter will be born this month. Because she will be born in the U.S., she will be the first in her family to be a citizen. Samra said her daughter’s name will be the Pashto word for ‘Universe.’ It is a tribute to God, good luck and the kind strangers that helped them come to America.
