Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“I was 10 years old. I loved my home in Los Angeles, where my family always gathered in celebration. I couldn’t imagine life beyond the Pacific Ocean. I remember the day we moved to Washington, DC. My cousin, Zarina, and I had stayed up all night crying and saved our soaked tissues in an eyeglass case. Two weeks later, I was in a motorcade on the way to the White House for my father to present his credentials as the first Afghan Ambassador to the United States since the Soviet invasion in 1979 – that’s 23 years! It was one of the few times I saw my Baba cry, when he said, ‘I’m just a poor boy from Coche Ali Reza Khan.’” Jahan Shahryar, co-editor of “Our Shared Stories.”
Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with Jahan prior to her book launch at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington with her co-editor Emal Dusst. As a long time friend of the Shahryars from the time they first arrived to fulfill their diplomatic mission to current times, it brought back many memories of their entertaining at home as well as former President Hamid Karzai’s first visit to The United States at the Embassy.
Hafizah, Alexander and Jahan Shahryar with a friend
“I grew up in Los Angeles, but I was born in Afghanistan,” Emal told us. “Jahan and I were just brainstorming about the fact that there is a lot of different stories that have been lost over the years because people have not been writing them down. I always hear stories from my grandmother or my grandfather and other Afghans as well. We were just brainstorming and thought of captions for those stories, and really just making a compilation into a book. That’s sort of how the idea came about. Then we thought of providing the proceeds to education because that is something I’m passionate about. I grew up with a single mother, so the education factor is really a big driver for growth. We started the discussion maybe a year ago and somehow it came together. I left Afghanistan when I was little, so I don’t really have any memories. I was planning of going back at some point, but I have just not done that yet, so my memories are all through stories which is why the book is very important to me.”
Emal Dusst – Photo Courtesy of Youth Action
“What we did first was we reached out to a few Afghans who we thought would have interesting stories. For example, last year I met Fereshteh Forough, and she was speaking about “Code to Inspire,” which is the first coding school for all girls in Afghanistan. I asked her if is she would share for story for this book. Code to Inspire is one of the three non-profits that we’re supporting through the proceeds of this book. We started with her, and then there were a few others that we thought would have interesting stories…….stories about resiliency. There’s one girl for example that I read about who was shot by her husband. When I looked her up, I knew somebody else that had helped her and started a fund to help raise money for her recovery. That was another story. And then we also went through social media and asked people to submit stories. We went through many different stories and picked the ones we thought were the most interesting. Then we actually came up with the chapters at the end of it versus trying to categorize the chapters first. We did that actually once we chose the forty-two stories that we liked.”
“I think that from what I hear and what I read, that it’s much better in Afghanistan now then it was pre-9/11,” he explained. “There’s girls and women who are going back to school which I think is very important because the ones that are not going to school, a lot of them have more kids and throw out the education. I think it’s tough for the country to really continue it’s growth. I think that it’s improved, and there are stats that show it’s improved, but I’m not living there but I see is the stats and I have to believe those. I mean, the country is moving forward. People are going to school.”
“Abraham Lincoln said, ‘The philosophy of the school in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.’ This profound statement is something that truly applies to the future of Afghanistan.” Sabana Basij-Rasikh.
The proceeds of the book will be divided between three non-profits. “All three of them that we picked, we thought they were innovative. We thought they had great leadership, that they are skilled and most importantly sustainable,” he added. The three are SOLA, Code to Inspire and Digital Citizen Fund.
One on One with Jahan Shahryar:
