Anwar, 24, a 2021 transfer, is the only Afghan student pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. When Anwar first came to the United States in 2019, he still had plans to go back to his country and help explore the mineral wealth there.
However, when the Taliban took over in 2021, his dreams of going back and setting up a business there were shattered.
“I wanted to pursue mining and metallurgical engineering because universities back home did not offer that degree. I wanted to help build an income source that could help the economy of my country,” Anwar says.
He has now turned his attention to getting asylum here and being able to stay beyond his degree.
“Going back to Afghanistan is not safe anymore,” he says.
Anwar’s family was evacuated from Afghanistan a month before the U.S troops pulled out of the country, and his friends gave him details of the upheaval that followed.
“This all happened because the president [Ashraf Ghani] just ran away. He just left the palace. And all of a sudden, people panicked. It was like the ‘day of judgment’ we call it…the day the president left the whole city, the whole country just went into chaos.”
He says his family was fortunate to have evacuated right on time.
“Many people who stayed were put in jails and are right now in prison. Afghanistan right now does not have free media. So most of that stuff is not being shared with the world. But the situation out there, people who are there right now are suffering from all the atrocities,” he says.
Anwar met us outdoors on a bright Friday afternoon in his traditional attire after attending Friday prayers at the Reno-Sparks mosque.
Despite what his family and friends have gone through in the past year due to the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, he reminisces about the time he had spent earlier in his homeland. He says he often shows his friends here in Reno, the pictures of his previous family home and all the fruit trees around it.
“I have a lot of friends (here), but I miss people from my country,” he says. “Talking to them, sitting with them, going to weddings, the birthday parties we used to celebrate with friends… I hope that day comes again.”
When friends in Reno ask Anwar about the situation back home, he is always willing to share his views and spread awareness.
“I've always told them (friends) that the people like the Taliban are not Afghans. They are not what we are. They are radical extremist people. They are uneducated, illiterate. They have not seen anything in their lives. They are very close minded. I don't consider them Afghan. I don't consider them Muslim even. That's not what Islam teaches us. Killing innocent people and being harsh to women, none of this is what Islam teaches us to do,” Anwar says.
He is deeply saddened by the state of his country and believes that there should have been a peace agreement between the former Western-backed government and the Taliban.
“If we could have gone through an agreement, I think that would have been a much better outcome. And we would not be forced to live here and going back would have been possible for us,” he says.