How a Petaluma family escaped the Taliban

Mohammad Zahir Qaderi didn’t know if his family would get out of Afghanistan alive.

It was the summer of 2021, the U.S. was hastily withdrawing its military forces from the country, effectively ending its 20-year war there, and the Taliban was just as quickly taking control.

Qaderi, a 48-year-old NATO journalist working for the U.S. military, knew his life was in danger. He’d been publicly criticizing the Taliban, which meant it was time to leave the country.

He’d arranged for his family to board a bus packed with other evacuees headed to Kabul Airport, where the U.S. military was flying out U.S. personnel and their families.

The airport was a scene of pandemonium.

A suicide bomb had gone off earlier and Taliban checkpoints were everywhere. People had to wade across a sewage channel and climb over walls to get past armed soldiers and into the airport.

The Qaderis spent several harrowing days on the bus as it circled the airport — unable to get past the checkpoints and being separated and then reunited — the family eventually made its way into the airport and onto a plane.

The group was flown to a U.S. base in Bahrain, then to Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. After that, they were sent to a military camp in Indiana where they waited for three months, with thousands of other Afghan refugees, for the government to process their application for refugee status.

Finally, with the support of a veteran-led organization called No One Left Behind, and other refugee support organizations, the family became eligible for food stamps and other initial expenses to resettle.

Founded in 2014, No One Left Behind is a nonprofit organization that supports former interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan who are eligible for Special Immigrant Visa programs.

By working for the U.S. government, local interpreters and employees in Iraq and Afghanistan risked their lives for Americans.

The group helps eligible applicants reach safety and start new lives in this country. According to its website, “We work to ensure the United States honors its commitments to those who helped us in our time of need.”

In addition, ULM Family Foundation helped underwrite 12 months of rent and arranged for eight families to move to Petaluma.

The foundation partnered with St. John’s Episcopal Church, which formed a network of volunteers called the Afghan Allies Project to help them navigate their new life here.

Since arriving in Petaluma, the Qaderi family has worked to rebuild their lives.

Qaderi’s wife, Surya, is taking English lessons and learning how to drive. Their youngest daughter is attending Miwok Valley School,while their older kids attend Casa Grande High School.

The eldest son received a Google Scholarship and works as an intern at a construction company.

Mohammad Qaderi, who had a successful career as a journalist back home, is having to start all over.

He works the graveyard shift as a nursing assistant at Petaluma Valley Hospital and is taking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College to train for a new career.

“I’d like to be able to work as a journalist again, but I’d need to improve my English,” he explained. “So, I am taking an IT class. Being skilled in IT will give me options to work in different fields.”

More immediately, the family’s housing support is about to expire.

“We don’t have a place to live after December,” Qaderi said.

Afghan Allies is attempting to negotiate with Qaderi’s landlord for a rent reduction, but this has been unsuccessful so far. Qaderi has mixed feelings about this.

“Afghani people don’t like to receive handouts,” he said. “We are hard workers, but we need more time to get settled here.”

The family wants to stay in Petaluma because they have a network of support there. Plus, after what they’ve been through, they want stability.

Unfortunately, the Qaderis and other refugees are trying to start their lives when the United States is in the grip of a housing crisis. Rents have risen across the country and the severe housing shortage in California has been described by many advocacy groups as a humanitarian catastrophe.

Recently, Gov. Newsom signed dozens of bills in an attempt to ease the crisis, but the changes won’t happen fast enough for families like the Qaderis.

To afford a home for a family of eight they may need to earn $100,000 a year – a tall order for a refugee family that just escaped war and must now rebuild their lives from scratch.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, as of 2021, there were 89.3 million people worldwide who have been forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order.

That number ballooned to over 100 million this year because of the war in Ukraine and other conflicts. These figures don’t include the millions of people displaced recently by disasters such as the climate change-induced flooding in Pakistan.

“We lost everything, and returning is not an option, at least while the current government is in power,” Qaderi said. At the same time, he longs for his home country. “I miss Afghanistan. It is where my family and my culture are.”

He is thankful to the U.S. government for taking his family, and feels indebted to the generosity of the local community members who have done so much to help Afghan refugee families. Although the Qaderis have big challenges ahead, he wants people to know that his family is willing to work hard.

What keeps him going is his hope for his children.

Smiling for the first time, Qaderi said, “They came home with A+ on their report cards.”

Lina Hoshino is an award-winning filmmaker and columnist. Her latest film series, “Belonging: Asian and Pacific Islander Immigrant Stories in California,” will be screened this Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Petaluma Fairgrounds at 2:30 p.m. Her column “Another Perspective” runs once a month in the Argus-Courier.