On November 12, Middle and Upper School students heard from Noorjahan Akbar, a feminist advocate and author from Afghanistan. Noorjahan shared her family's story about growing up in Kabul, escaping the Taliban when they took over in 1996, returning after their fall in 2001, and what the last few months have been like for her family. 

Noorjahan was born into a family of activists and teachers, and she said, "I wanted to be part of change in my country. After decades of war and conflict and instability, I wanted to be part of the generation that helped usher my country into and era of peace, equality, and democracy. I started an organization that served women, and worked specifically with women who face violence at home. We provided them legal assistance, we helped them seek justice, and we helped them start their lives over. For a little while, I felt that I was making a huge impact. And it wasn’t just me — I was surrounded by really passionate people who wanted to make Afghanistan a better place for everyone."

Noorjahan spent several years living in the United States, but wanted to return to Afghanistan to be closer to the people she was helping. However, because of her work, she had received many death threats, and she did not want to put her family at risk. She also fell in love with and married a Black man, which complicated matters, since anti-Black racism is a problem in Afghanistan. Noorjahan was unable to return to Afghanistan until this summer, before the United States military forces withdrew.

Noorjahan wrote this article about her experience leaving Afghanistan and subsequently trying to get her family out during the tumultuous time after the US withdrawal. She shared that experience with the students, and left them with the following thoughts:

“The reason I share this story is not to make you feel bad for me, but rather to say that we are always, constantly, surrounded by people who have had difficult experiences like mine and my family’s. Before I spoke today, you didn’t know, right? You didn’t know this just happened to my family a month and a half ago. And there are SO many people in your vicinity who you may not know have gone through something terrible, something traumatizing, something dangerous, or unsafe.

I think in the coming weeks, many of you will see Afghan families in your neighborhoods who are coming here as refugees. I hope that we will all leave this assembly with this awareness that we are constantly surrounded by people who need our compassion, who need to feel belonging and welcomed, and who need to be seen as people, as humans. Not as refugees, not as poor Afghan women, not as subjects of victimization and oppression, but rather as people, and that they need dignity, respect, and belonging. And I really hope that you will extend that to one another, you will extend it to me, and you will extend it to any newcomer in your community. Because refugees... they are me, they are you. They are all of us. They’re just people.”