Saturday, Aug. 27, 2023, will mark two years since our migration from Kabul. My family—my wife, Sohaila, our daughter Bahar, and our son Aryan— lived at Fort Bliss, Texas during our seven-week in-processing and security checks before settling into a new life in Dallas in October 2021. My brother, Faiz, and his family live there as well. Since I arrived in the United States, there has been an outpouring of support for my family, particularly due to the great people of Dallas. I am constantly humbled and overwhelmed.
In November 2021, Pfizer hired me as a senior associate and I was promoted in August 2022. I was their first Afghan refugee hire. They have since hired hundreds more. I have also been working with their corporate leadership to better understand the ongoing needs of the Afghan refugees around the nation. I was also honored to sit down with President and Mrs. Bush in May 2022 to have this same dialogue as well.
Currently, my family is here in the United States under Humanitarian Parole, which allows noncitizens to enter the country without visas for pressing humanitarian reasons and stay for one or two years, depending on the parole term. I urge Congress to pass the recently reintroduced Afghan Adjustment Act, bipartisan legislation which will afford us permanent legal status that will allow us at some point the opportunity for citizenship.
We all know that Afghanistan surrendered in a strange way that stunned the whole world. I am one of those people who still can’t believe that a country of this size and all its tangible achievements can be multiplied by zero. I was in my government office on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021, when the Taliban arrived in Kabul. So even until the last day, I hoped that Kabul might not fall and a logical solution would be found, but the opposite happened. I never thought about leaving my homeland before and everyone around me knew this. My living conditions in Afghanistan were among the best and we were blessed. For those Americans who have served there and understand, it is not an exaggeration to say that Afghanistan and, especially my homeland Panjshir, are among the most beautiful places in this world. I have the finest family that always supported me at every stage of my life. I have friends of the diamond type with whom I share the best memories —from cycling, hiking, and football to nightly parties, shared work experiences, and even abroad vacations. As much as we loved living in Afghanistan, when Kabul fell, I could no longer live under the flag of the Taliban. I have never been and will never be compatible with the idea of this group. Contrary to their ideology, I have led public awareness programs supported by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the U.S. Special Operations Command and thought that we were leading Afghanistan towards prosperity and stability. My dream was to see our nation at the highest level in the “health and wealth” chart. Those dreams were shattered as the Taliban returned to power and my work history endangered my life. I will not go into too much detail about how I left Kabul because it was covered enough in the American press. During our harrowing journey, I met four unaccompanied children on Aug. 26, 2021, and accompanied them to Washington. They joined their mother in New York on Aug. 30, 2021, as we flew to Ft. Bliss.
Leaving a country you love and have lived in for 35 years is not easy. When the C-17 military plane took off from Kabul, it had a very negative effect on me and emotions ran high. At that time, my past was passing by me image by image. I left all those happy and unhappy memories, relatives, friends and everything behind to start all over again at the age of 35! Ending a significant part of life like that was difficult and painful.
Over the past two years, I have been and will continue to be a responsible citizen, as I worked honestly in Afghanistan, I will continue to serve the people of this great land here as well. My family and I have been enjoying our home in Dallas; our kids are thriving in school and have learned excellent English speaking skills, and we have hosted Afghan dinner parties as we have adjusted to this new life.
I am deeply honored to be in this great country and urge congressional and public support for the Afghan Adjustment Act so that families like mine can continue to find stability, opportunity, and community in this magnificent land.
Afzal Afzali worked for a non-governmental organization that worked with the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. Afzali and his family were able to evacuate the country before U.S. forces left Afghanistan. He has become an advocate for passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act.