Emergency Funds for Afghan Artists – GoFundMe Updates

March 20, 2022 | Thank you to each and every supporter of our fundraising campaign “Emergency Funds for Afghan Artists.” With your generosity, we were able to raise a total of $53,283.22 (through GoFUndMe, PayPal, Venmo, and direct donations)! As of January 2022, we stopped accepting new donations and formally closed our fundraiser as we completed our goals. Please read our full update here.

Thank you all for your support over the past seven months. We–and the families we have been assisting–cannot overstate our gratitude to each one of you who has contributed to this campaign. Together, you have helped us raise more than $41,000 in direct assistance to evacuate and resettle vulnerable Afghan artists, writers, cultural and civil society workers. Below we share our latest update on our activities, including the current status of each of the families we’ve been assisting.

Also, please note that as of January 2022, we stopped accepting new donations and formally closed our fundraiser as we completed our goals. We have successfully applied for Humanitarian Parole for all of the original nine families we were assisting–a total of 44 applications. Coordinated international evacuation efforts have drastically slowed, so we focused our recent work on providing direct relief to the families as they await their parole applications in country or as they resettle in a third country. As the people of Afghanistan continue to face a dire humanitarian and economic crisis, and as more than 30,000 Humanitarian Parole applications await decisions by USCIS, we will continue to call for immediate humanitarian aid, the unfreezing of assets, and humane immigration/resettlement policy.

Here is an update on each of the families AAAWA has been assisting:

M., Visual Artist
M is a visual artist AAAWA has worked with in the past. We assisted him and his wife in evacuating to Pakistan, where he was awarded a prestigious academic fellowship to the UK. AAAWA assisted the couple with their temporary housing and basic food costs in Pakistan, their Covid testing kits for travel to the UK, their flight tickets, basic living costs in the UK until their fellowship funds arrived, as well as a laptop and arts supplies. They have since settled into an apartment in London provided by the university and M is beginning art school while also contending with PTSD and culture shock. Additionally, M was told that the university would not renew his fellowship for the coming year (September 2022), so AAAWA is assisting him to explore other funding options. We welcome any assistance in the way of connections and/or grant writing.

Z., Filmmaker & Theater Artist
Z is an award-winning filmmaker and social theater artist that an AAAWA member has worked with in the past. AAAWA assisted him and his family of four with evacuating to Pakistan, where he awaits his Humanitarian Parole and P-2 cases. Along the challenging land journey, Z’s four-month-old son became badly ill and had to be hospitalized for a few days. Recently, his 5-year-old had to undergo emergency surgery. Both children are now okay, but these experiences compounded their many stresses, including fear of deportation and lack of sustainable employment. AAAWA has provided the family funds to cover their rent and basic living expenses (prices in Pakistan are nearly double that in Afghanistan) while Z transitions from earning $2/day selling tea to now working as a tailor. This year AAAWA hopes to support Z in continuing his film work.

N., Journalist, Theater Artist, & Filmmaker
N is a theater maker and filmmaker, as well as a former state journalist for Afghan Radio & TV. We assisted N. and his family of five (including a pregnant wife) to secure new national IDs, to apply for new Afghan passports, as well as to make several attempts at crossing the border to Pakistan. It took five months before they were finally able to successfully evacuate–a journey that took them 85 hours(!) by bus and resulted in two of his children becoming severely ill. Fortunately, the family is healthy and safe now, though they, too, face the threat of deportation. AAAWA has helped the family secure housing and basic household furnishings, as well as to cover their monthly expenses over the next few months as N looks for work. We’ve also been trying to advocate for him to the @CommitteeToProtectJournalists. His P-2 visa application is in its initial processing, and he currently awaits the outcome of his Humanitarian Parole case. This year AAAWA hopes to support N in safely continuing his journalism work.

S., Theater Artist, Voice Actor & Writer
S is a well-known writer for theater and radio, as well as a recognizable voice actor in popular radio dramas. He is also the father of seven young children. He has been virtually unemployed for months, doing some minimal and clandestine film dubbing work, which earned him less than $2/day. S also recently lost his mother to a sudden heart attack and has been in mourning. AAAWA has provided him with funds to secure passports and to cover his family’s basic living expenses over several months while he pursues more sustainable work and awaits the outcome of his Humanitarian Parole application. We hope to support S in safely resuming his artistic work.

R., Civil Society Worker
R is a former civil society worker, who has been unemployed since August and heads a household of nine children and an ailing mother. Several of his children were locked out of school by the Taliban, who closed public universities and barred girls from grades 7-12 to go to school. This affected R.’s eldest son (a journalism student at university) and his three teen daughters, whom he determinedly kept enrolled in private English courses. AAAWA helped his eldest son apply for a journalism fellowship for Afghan students at Hong Kong University. We also provided funds for R to keep his daughters enrolled in the English courses, to secure passports for the family and to cover their basic needs over the next months while they wait on their Humanitarian Parole applications and R finds more long term work.

In addition to these five cultural and civil society workers, AAAWA assisted with the filing of Humanitarian Parole applications for an additional five families. These included two widow-headed all-female households, two families working in food security, and one family of former government workers who are presently in hiding. These families remain in Afghanistan. USCIS has received over 30,000 parole applications and have also altered the qualifications to include prohibitive elements, such as third-party evidence of danger to the applicant. Advocacy is currently underway to pressure Congress and President Biden to remove these obstacles and expedite the cases. For more info check out @ProjectAnar and @AfghansForABetterTomorrow

Lastly, AAAWA is also renewing our creative energies in this new year as we mark officially becoming a 501c3 nonprofit organization! We are also at work on a digital exhibit featuring Afghan artists in country and in exile. You can follow our updates and find more information on our website (www.aaawa.net).

Thank you again for your generous support and for being in community with us!

The AAAWA Fam

Project Hajra x AAAWA Celebrate Nowruz 2021

We are so excited to co-sponsor these upcoming Nowruz events with Project Hajra! Please save the dates for our Nowruz program Thursday, March 18th from 4-5PM EST and Friday, March 19th 4-5:30PM EST.

✨To RSVP, please email projecthajra@gmail.com. Project Hajra will be sending the link several hours before the events.

Here is some more information about the program, so that you may prepare in a way that makes the best sense for you:

For Thursday:
Please bring paper, pen, or anything that you’d like to use to either journal or draw.

For Friday: 
We are having a hunt for common nowruz items and all ages are welcome to play!  Here are some items if you want to prepare for this hunt! This is a time to really be creative in finding the items that work for you! 🙂 

Here is the information about the hunt: 

The Haft Sin is a sofreh or table setting of symbolic items that we arrange in celebration of Nowruz. It is called Haft (7) Sin (for letter “س”) because it meant to have 7 special items that all begin with the Persian letter Sin. Each item has a symbolic meaning.

Items that start with Persian letter “س”:
  • Sabzeh (سبزه): [greens grown like sprouts] the symbol of rebirth and growth.
  • Samanu (سمنو): [Sweet Pudding] the symbol of power and strength.
  • Senjed (سنجد): [Persian olive] the symbol of love.
  • Somāq (سماق): [Spice] the symbol of sunrise.
  • Serkeh (سرکه): [vinegar] the symbol of patience.
  • Seeb (سیب): [Apple] the symbol of beauty.
  • Seer (سیر): [Garlic] the symbol of health and medicine.
Other items that start with Persian letter “س” and can be included:
  • Sonbol (سنبل): [Hyacinth flower] the symbol of spring’s arrival.
  • Sekkeh (سکه): [Gold coins] the symbol of wealth and prosperity.
  • Saat (ساعت): [Clock] the symbol of time.
Items that don’t start with “س” and can be included:
  • eggs (تخم‌مرغ رنگی): the symbol of fertility.
  • mirror (آینه): the symbol of self-reflection.
  • candle (شمع): the symbol of enlightenment.
  • goldfish (ماهی قرمز): the symbol of life.
  • book (کتاب): the symbol of wisdom.
Additional accessibility notes from Project Hajra:

— We will be speaking in several different languages and will do our best to have consecutive interpretation, this is also an invitation to share in the language that makes the most sense for your heart!
— Because of the multilingual space, we will not have transcriptions, but will have the scripted parts of our program up on slides and also in the chat. Our team went back and forth on how to be the best accessible that we can considering needs of multilingual space, this is what we settled on.
— This is a cultural program, not a religious program, and all are welcome.

About Project Hajra

Project Hajra is a membership based, peer supported, and transformative justice initiative working out of our local AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South/Central Asian) community in Queens, NYC. We began in 2011 in partnership with CONNECT-NYC to develop gender justice organizing programs by and for us.

aaawa_artAdditional accessibility notes from Project Hajra:
— We will be speaking in several different languages and will do our best to have consecutive interpretation, this is also an invitation to share in the language that makes the most sense for your heart!
— Because of the multilingual space, we will not have transcriptions, but will have the scripted parts of our program up on slides and also in the chat. Our team went back and forth on how to be the best accessible that we can considering needs of multilingual space, this is what we settled on.
— This is a cultural program, not a religious program, and all are welcome

Reimagining Queer Futures: Afghans and Art in the Diaspora

About this Event

On October 30, 2020, the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) was proud to present Reimagining Queer Futures: Afghans and Art in the Diaspora, a virtual panel discussion featuring activists, writers, and artists on how creativity and the arts are being mobilized by the LGBTQ Afghan diaspora as a form of resistance and community-building.


Introductory Remarks:

Welcome everyone to today’s conversation, “Reimagining Queer Futures: Afghans and Art in the Diaspora,” hosted by the Afghan American Artists’ and Writers’ Association. My name is Helena Zeweri and I am a co-founding member of AAAWA. I’m currently an Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of Virginia and am very thankful to be able to offer some introductory remarks for what I’m sure will be an enriching discussion. 

Thank you for taking the time to be here with us. Our conversation today is meant to address a topic that touches so many in the diaspora, but that has not been given enough attention, or at least thoughtful attention. As writer Arundhati Roy has noted, “there’s really no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard.” At AAAWA, we are committed to foregrounding the experiences of the marginalized within our diaspora, those voices who have been silenced or rendered invisible both by our communities but also by the society we live in – in the United States. Our panel today, though, is not just about recognizing the difficulty of being queer in the Afghan diaspora , but also what it would mean to think about LGBTQ life as the starting point for generative and liberatory possibilities. Our panelists this afternoon are artists, writers, performers, activists, and scholars who are all undertaking creative projects not only for art’s sake, but also in order to imagine radically new futures for Afghans and the broader communities and environments in which they live.

Before we get this conversation under way, I want to situate where we are in time and space. I want to acknowledge that we are all zooming in from different places. For most of us, the places where we stand is on Indigenous land, and is most likely unceded territory. I would like to recognize the land upon which I am speaking today. I acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of the land of what is today known as Charlottesville, Virginia–the Monacan people, and pay my respect to their elders past and present. I trust and hope you will join me in doing your own silent acknowledgment yourself. Participating in this event from Charlottesville, I am reminded of the events of 2017, when white supremacists violently marched through the town chanting racist and xenophobic slogans. And I am reminded that while this was three years ago, so little seems to have changed on a national level since then–in fact, it seems that we are living in a time where multiple crises have come to a head–from public health, to climate change, to racial injustice, to homophobia and transphobia, to anti-immigrant xenophobia and everything in between. We are just four days away from what is one of if not the most important election in US history. At the same time, we are also reaching tail end of LGBTQ Pride Month. And as difficult as it is, we at AAAWA felt that it is exactly in this moment that creative and innovative thinking is needed the most.  That is where queer futures comes in to play–it is within LGBTQ-run artistic, academic, and creative collectives and spaces that some of the most exciting and critical thinking is happening today. Our panelists are creators, artists, and performers who push the envelope through their work, but they have also been thinking about and more importantly, practicing, the kinds of liberatory possibilities that we need the benefit of in this moment. In short, our panelists exemplify the kinds of thinking and creativity that we need in this moment. This conversation, then, is about refusing the forces that silence queer voices and lives and what role artistic and creative expression can be in that discussion. At AAAWA are committed to elevating the Afghan diaspora, who embody intersectional identities. Our membership is constituted by those who are often at the crosshairs of anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and queerphobic state policies and rhetoric, but who are also constantly resisting and refusing such regimes of hate, sometimes just by being collectively visible in public spaces. In this vein, the conversation today is also about how the arts has the potential to create more interdependent, equitable, and ethical ways of being  in the world.

In the spirit of equity and inclusivity, then, we have decided to insert a blank panelist box. This box signifies a silent anonymous panelist to pay respect to queer and trans Afghans in both Afghanistan and the diaspora who cannot join us for reasons of safety and threats to their wellbeing. This box is a way to acknowledge their existence and humanity, and that we hold this space with them.


Panelist Bios:

Ahmad Qais Munhazim is Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Troubling borders of academia, activism and art, Munhazim’s work focuses on everyday lived experiences of political violence and migration in the lives of queer and trans individuals. Munhazim, born and raised in Afghanistan and exiled currently in Philadelphia, identifies as genderqueer, Muslim and displaced. They hold a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota and are the co-founder of Minnesota Caravan of Love, a queer and trans Muslim led community organizing group in the Twin Cities. (they/them)

Born in Western Australia to Afghan refugees, Bobuq Sayed is a freelance writer, artist and, formerly, an editor of Un Magazine and Archer Magazine. They have received fellowships and residencies from the Wheeler Centre, Firstdraft Gallery, Punctum, Kundiman, and VONA, and their work has been published and performed widely. Currently, Bobuq is a Michener fellow at the University of Miami’s MFA program where they are working on a novel. (they/them)

An Afghan raised in New York City, Wazina‘s storycollecting and storytelling work centers culture, collective memories and tradition. As an informal and undisciplined performer, Wazina is the co-writer and co-performer of Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love, a personal storytelling performance capturing the experience of being queer and Muslim alongside her creative counterpart and sister in spirituality, Terna Tilley-Gyado.

Wazina is a sexuality educator & trainer who focuses on intersectional identities, often speaking to issues related to Islam & sexuality. (they/she)

Moderator Bios:

Seelai Karzai is a poet, cultural organizer, and chocolate enthusiast from Queens, New York. She is a member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) and is a 2019 Poetry Foundation Incubator fellow, an initiative organized by the Poetry Foundation and Crescendo Literary for poets who engage with and serve their community through their creative practice. Seelai’s writing has appeared in Newtown Literary Journal and is forthcoming in an anthology of contemporary writing by Muslims from Red Hen Press. She is currently an MFA student at the University of Oregon. (she/her)

Wazhmah Osman is a writer, filmmaker, and activist. Currently she is an assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production at Temple University. In her forthcoming book Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists, under contract with Illinois Press’ Geopolitics of Information Series, she analyzes the impact of international funding and cross-border media flows on the national politics of Afghanistan, the region, and beyond. Her critically acclaimed documentary, Postcards from Tora Bora, has screened in film festivals nationally and internationally. (she/her)

Presented by the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association

AAAWA and ADEP Co-host Virtual Panel Discussion: “Beyond Refuge: Migrants Resist Detention” on 7/24/20

The Afghan American Artists’ and Writers’ Association and the Afghan Diaspora for Equality and Progress are proud to present “Beyond Refuge: Migrants Resist Detention”, a virtual panel discussion featuring activists, lawyers, and human rights advocates. Join us this Friday July 24, 2020 at 7pm EST/4pm PST.

Visit bit.ly/beyondrefuge to register for this FREE event.

This panel discussion is focused on developing a better understanding of how migrants are politically conscious people who are resisting the violence of the states in which they are seeking protection. It aims to move beyond the narrative that migrants are simply passive victims of humanitarian aid. We have a dynamic set of panelists on board, including Afghan organizers who have worked with refugees in Greece and have had personal experience with this issue. We look forward to an informative and thoughtful discussion!