‘The taste of our home’: inside an Afghan restaurant in Arizona run by former refugees | Environment

AN is an aromatic mix of spices and PolianThe stuffed fried bread, and the voice of a Badi lion, the Afghan pop singer who ascended to stardom in the eighties, warns of eating experience that one can easily believe that she was running thousands of miles away.

In fact, it was almost one o’clock in Tosson, ArizonaWhen Retik Ravi and Ahmed Bahduri began receiving customers and receiving their requests in both Dari and English in the only Afghan restaurant in the city.

As Ravi and Bahdori say, it is like eating in one of the corners of Kabul – the nostalgia that inspired the name of the restaurant.

“Our language of love is food,” said Ravi, an American citizen who came to Arizona as a refugee in 1999, shortly after the Taliban seized power for the first time. Afghanistan.

“After the fall of Kabul in 2021, we realized that the Afghans who were resettled here were wondering:” Where can we get an authentic Afghan food? “We thought they needed a place like this and we called it the Kabul Corner.”

The Kabul corner opened its doors in September 2023, that is, more than two years after the Taliban Afghanistan regainedForcing Clear withdrawal of American forces From the capital. Taliban Soon, women were deprived of their basic rights He threatened to kill everyone who opposes his regime.

For fear of revenge after 20 years of American military presence, Tens of thousands of Afghans rushed To Kabul International Airport, trying to escape from the country at any cost. American evacuation trips are technically designed for those who helped American forces. But in reality, those who were transported by an atmosphere of Kabul were the lucky ones who managed to board the plane in time. Many of them left behind.

In all, more than 77,000 Afghan has been transferred to the United States as part of an effort called “the welcome of the allies”, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Internal Security. Since 2021, more than 3,600 of them have settled in Arizona. This is more than the total number between 1981, when the Refugee Resettlement Program in Arizona began. TraceAnd 2020. According to the program, funded by the US Department of Health, at least 1,000 Afghan immigrants live in Toxon.

When asked about how Kabul Corner was able to provide the authentic Afghan food in the second largest city in Arizona, Ravi and Bahdouri gave a quick answer that does not accept controversy: the care of God Sherzadeh.

He added that a long time before the 38 -year -old immigrant would become a major cook in Kabul Corner, Sherzada was working for a company that supplied US military bases in Afghanistan with oil.

As the Taliban regained power, Sherzadeh knew that his involvement with the United States made him a target. He rushed to Kabul Airport and managed to ride a evacuation flight. After a strict examination and scrutiny conducted by US intelligence officials, Sherzada arrived in Arizona in late August 2021.

Once he arrived, he submitted an asylum request, and he was finally approved and allowed to become a permanent resident. Ravi and Bahaduri were admired by his ducks on the occasions of the new arrivals, and pledged to work with them if they opened a restaurant.

“When I got the green card, I felt a great improvement. I have decreased the level of tension because I was afraid to return me. Sherzadeh said, with the help of Ravi, who translated him:” Afghanistan is not a safe place. “

But my father and my brother are still in Afghanistan. They have no way out. “

Once Afghan refugees such as Sherzada are transferred to places such as Toxon – that have been praised for their effective efforts in resettlement – local resettlement agencies help them integrate into a new society. Among those agencies is the International Salvation Committee, which has helped more than 600 Afghan have been evacuated from Toxon since August 2021.

Mahria Habibi, a previous refugee from Afghanistan and is now the Deputy Director of the International Salvation Committee in Toxon, said that the security of housing and the language barrier are some of the challenges faced by Afghan immigrants upon their arrival. Habibi concluded his speech that the biggest challenge is the family separation.

“We have examples of such a mother who boarded an evacuation plane, believing that her young children and her husband were also on the plane, and in the end they did not realize that they were separate,” said Habibi, who started work as an instant translator. For the resettlement agency in 2002.

“We know that many members of our society have transferred their families inside Afghanistan and trying to get them out of there. Moreover, dealing with their lives here, attending their jobs, making sure that they pay their bills, and follow their own requests, whether it is asylum or amending their conditional status – It adds a lot of stress and anxiety.

Habibi said that although most Afghan families in Toxon were able to obtain permanent legal residence, many of them are still waiting for decisions regarding their requests for asylum or petitions that did not reunite them with their relatives in Afghanistan.

ALunch at the most crowded phases, where the most popular dishes from the kitchen were brought to six tables in the restaurant: Pangan bEuropeanOr fried eggplant cooked in marinated tomato sauce; Do the squareOr cheat lamb with fried onions; And generous parts of the basmati rice and Nan.

“We do not want our food, because we will lose our goal, which is to preserve the taste of our house,” said Bahaaduri while he was attending a dish of bread. Bolani KachuloOr fried bread stuffed with potatoes and a side applicable of mint sauce.

“That is why we make our food with Afghan ingredients only.”

The shelves inside the restaurant are filled with dried fruits, sweets and spices in tightly closed bags and containers. The owners of Kabul Corner said they are paying a food production company based in Kabul North California – home to another large Afghan society – to bring in authentic Afghan products to Tuxon.

As of 2022, Afghan diaspora in the United States consisted of about 250,000 individuals born in Afghanistan or of Afghan descent.

Supporters say that Afghans are treated differently from similar refugee groups who have obtained a permanent position under the amendment laws approved by Congress – which can allow those who have a conditional release mode to become permanent residents – approved by Congress, such as Cubans fleeing communism, and fleeing Hanigarians From the Soviet and Vietnamese repression. Refugees after the fall of Saigon.

The Afghan adaptation law received support from the two parties, however It has been suspended in Congress For more than two years.

The Biden administration has established temporary ways for these Afghans who live in forgetting, including by extending their work permits and protecting them from deportation. Within the temporary protection case program.

But under the new Trump administration, temporary protection measures have become at risk. It was called Trump Stephen MillerTrump’s anti -immigration policy engineer, including Preventing Muslims from traveling and Family separation Politics as Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House Policy.

Trump has also chosen Southern Dakota Governor, Christie Naim, Minister of Internal Security. Nayyim model The resettlement of Afghan refugees in South Dakota in 2021, indicating concerns about the adequacy of the audit.

At the same time, due to the repression of the Taliban and the repression of the country Economic instabilityThousands of Afghans They made their way to Latin AmericaHoping to reach the southern border of the United States and seek asylum on American soil.

Trump exactly did not mention what would happen to the Afghans who were evacuated and who have not yet obtained a permanent situation, but he promised to end the temporary protection status programs established by the United States. Biden AdministrationWhich includes one for Afghan.

WWWhile society grew in areas such as North California, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New Jersey and New York, the resettlement of Afghan in Arizona was made at a much slower pace.

Ravi remembered that when she arrived more than two decades ago to the United States, the population, the usual of the Latin population in Toxon, was confused with a Latin migrant at bus stations and supermarkets. She added that people often talk to her in Spanish.

Before Bahanduri, who has now become an American citizen, in Arizona, was working for the American government as an engineer in the reconstruction of the affected areas of the conflict in Afghanistan. This is what I qualified to get a Special immigration visaIt is available for those who work for or on the United States government.

In 2014, when he immigrated to the United States as a refugee, there were about 70 Afghan families in Tosson, and there were no Afghan restaurants or associations.

He said: “In 2021, we started helping them find donations and providing transportation and translation for their immigration papers, when we created a non -profit organization here, the Afghan Toxon Society.”

“We were a bridge between the new arrivals and resettlement agencies.”

As of June 30, 2024, approximately 60,000 applicants had submitted all the papers required to obtain visas such as a vadori visa, and they were awaiting the initial approval to move forward in this process. According to the US State Department.

But those who did not work in the US government during the 20 -year war, are not qualified to obtain a special immigration visa. Even those who worked in Washington have difficulty obtaining visas under the program Wide -range accumulations,, Permocratic errors And very limited supplies. These millions of people still live in Afghanistan under conditions that violate their basic rights.

Returning to Toxon, Habibi, the resettlement agency official, said that, given the restrictions imposed on asylum by the Biden administration and Trump’s promise to oversee mass deportations, Afghans in Toxon are constantly wondering: “What will happen to me?” “Will my family have the opportunity to resettle in the United States?” “Will I be placed in the camp?”

These are the same concerns that some Afghan immigrants visited Kabul Corner regularly.

Ravi said: “It was important for us to show our people and others the culture of Afghans and the generosity of their hospitality here in Toxon.” “But we also want to make our people know that this is a safe place, in a place that they will not leave hungry, and a little happiness.”