Finding Refuge and Persecution

By Anonymous / Summer 2021

The promises that I associate with the United States are from the declaration of independence that states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Other rights that I associate with the United States are from the Bill of rights i.e., the freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of press.

I have seen these promises fulfilled when my maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts fled to the United States in the mid of 1980’s at the time when Soviet Union had attacked Afghanistan. My grandparents and uncles took refuge in the United States and had these promises fulfilled where they had the freedom of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Being refugees of war with having little to wear and some money, they were able to live in the United States without having any threat to their lives. They were given the opportunities to learn English and were helped in finding jobs. They were given food stamps to be able to get healthy food to eat and were given medical to help them out with any medical need. They were able to send their kids to schools in order to get good education and without worrying about their lives unlike in Afghanistan that was going through war and kids were not able to go to schools. Thus, the promise of happiness was fulfilled by the United States. One of the greatest promises that was fulfilled by the United States that my grandparents and I have experienced is the freedom of religion. My grandparents and uncles valued the promise of freedom of religion the most where there they were able to practice their religion by being able to go to mosques and being able practice in the public as well.

I have seen, experienced the promise of equality and the promise of liberty to be unfulfilled in the United States in many situations. On most cases I observed that the people were not granted job positions on government level based on their skin color or due to their religion. My cousin was denied of a job position in the interview by wanting her to remove her Hijab (scarf that covers hair). Many of my cousins that used to go to schools, universities or outside were picked out due to wearing hijab and were called out names such as terrorists and were asked to go back to their country, although they were born in the United States. Some of them were even attacked and their hijabs were pulled out in public. They were pushed and forced into obeying the dominant ideology of the west i.e., one should look and be dressed like the Whites that negates the promises that the United States makes i.e., the equality of all people regardless of race or religion. I have also experienced these promises (equality) unfulfilled especially in the airport where there after passing through the security check like other people, me and my family was picked out for additional security checking where there each of us was taken to a special room and had us double checked that led to delaying in the flight and were got stares from the people in the plane. This case is extreme with my uncle who have lived in the United States for more than 35 years and being the law abiding citizen he has to make sure that whenever he wants to go somewhere by air he has to be at the airport five hours before his flight because each time he has to go through a special security checkup and has to go through a long list of same questions that he has been answering from the past 35 years. The reason of this is just because his first name is Mohammad which is not only the case with my uncle but is the case with many other people with the name Mohammad which is name of the last prophet in Islam.