BRICK, NJ — As his name boomed over the loudspeakers at the football field at Brick Memorial High School, Mohammad Mir Shahnoory stepped forward to receive his high school diploma.
In the stands, his family cheered, like the families of every other one of the 365 students who graduated in the Class of 2023 on Wednesday evening, phones recording and preserving the memory.
Subscribe
As Mir turned and walked back to his seat, his grandmother, Sharin Gul, turned and hugged Christie Williams, while his parents, Attaullah Shahnoory and Kamila Sohrabi, beamed with pride at his accomplishments. Mir, an honors graduate, is headed to Harvard on a full scholarship.
It was a moment Mir and his family never could have imagined in their wildest dreams when they got separated on Aug. 19, 2021, at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the crush of Afghans trying to flee the Taliban takeover.
It was a moment made possible when the family was finally reunited on May 25, 2023.
Separation
In the early hours of Aug. 19, 2021, the Shahnoory family went to the airport in Kabul, prepared with paperwork that would allow them to board a transport out of the country as the United States was in the final stages of its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Mir’s uncle, Atta, had worked for the Afghan government, and the family is practicing Shiya Muslims — the minority in the country. Atta and Attaullah’s father had been a leader in Afghanistan but had been tortured and killed by the Taliban before Mir was born.
Escaping the coming Taliban takeover was a matter of life and death for the family.
The family — Mir, his parents, his four sisters, two brothers, his grandmother and his uncle and his family — had been in line for hours, working their way to the airport’s gates when a surge of people rushed in. Mir got separated from the rest of the family.
“I saw him, and I told him ‘Go, go!’ Atta Shahnoory said Wednesday evening, recounting the moment he saw his nephew for the last time.
Mir, with paperwork in hand, pressed forward and made it into the airport, and after an eight-month journey through Qatar and parts of the United States, landed with Christie and Greg Williams in Brick Township, who offered to sponsor him and provide a safe haven until his family could escape to the U.S. (Read Mir’s journey here: Afghan Teen Finds Village Of Help, Hope With Brick Family)
Atta Shahnoory told Mir’s parents he had seen Mir get inside the airport. At that point, the family decided to leave the airport and go back to their home.
The journey to reunification
Attaullah Shahnoory and Kamila Sohrabi sat at the dining table in a home in Camden County, recounting those moments that have changed the family’s lives permanently. They are renting a home, with assistance from a nonprofit organization in Highland Park that is helping to resettle Afghan refugees.
While Mir is fluent in English, his sister Asma, 14, is the only other family member who speaks English comfortably. His older sister, Fazila, 19, speaks some English. Learning the language of their new home country is a top priority, Attaullah and Kamila said through Mir, who served as interpreter.
“They have asked about courses to learn English in person, and if not in person, online,” Mir said, though online courses will require obtaining a computer and getting internet access, neither of which the family has at the moment. They have a caseworker helping them navigate the various programs, including obtaining work authorization, and the organization has an attorney to assist as well.
They arrived in New Jersey shortly before Memorial Day weekend, and were still getting settled in the sparsely furnished home when they agreed to speak about their journey. There are beds for each of the children and enough room for the family to set up a traditional Muslim seating area, where they eat and talk, in the home.
Outside, there are chalk drawings on the driveway of the home in a quiet suburb. The neighbors have been very welcoming, the family said, coming to visit and offering assistance. They have found a market where they can buy foods they are accustomed to and that meet their religious requirements, and are learning to navigate life in a new country.
It’s a stark contrast from the final moments when they were separated at the airport in Kabul.
It was “very scary, very chaotic,” Mir relayed. The Taliban was there, shooting, and the U.S. forces had deployed tear gas to try to disperse the crowd.
“They were afraid of being shot,” Mir said. “The younger children were scared and crying,” so the family retreated to their car and then to their home, where they stayed in near lockdown like they had lived during the pandemic.
“It was a very traumatic time,” Mir relayed from Attaullah. His siblings couldn’t attend school because “the Taliban was taking people off the streets.”
It was very stressful for Kamila. Her son, then 16, was traveling alone through unknown regions. Her other children, especially her older daughters, were in danger of being grabbed and attacked by the Taliban.
“She was worrying a lot until I got to the U.S.,” Mir relayed, as Kamila nodded. His fluency in English and his resourcefulness were qualities, his mother said, that helped her believe he would be safe once he reached the U.S. But she admits she didn’t fully relax until she learned he was living with the Williamses.
The self-imposed lockdown by the Shahnoory family — and other families in Kabul who faced the same threats — saved countless children’s lives. “The education center was bombed,” Asma said. “Thankfully no one was there.”
As Mir was traveling from Chicago to live with the Williamses, the U.S. State Department was in contact with Mir’s parents, asking them if they wanted to be reunited with their son. From there, it was a process to get passports for the family. Finally, on April 25, 2022, the family received word from the State Department that they had been approved for refugee status in the U.S., and on April 27, they boarded a commercial flight that was their first step to safety.
“In Kabul the Taliban was looking for government employees,” Mir said, relaying his father’s words. And family members of those employees were in danger as well, because when they could not find the government employees, they would punish those employees by harming family, he said.
“Until they got on the plane and it took off, they were afraid the Taliban would grab them,” Mir relayed.
Getting to New Jersey
While Attaullah and Kamila and their children traveled to Qatar, Atta was making arrangements to get Sharin out to safety. Because of her connection to Atta and because the Taliban does not allow women to travel alone, putting her at even greater risk, Atta was able to have her evacuated with him. They eventually traveled to Brazil, and later to the United States, where they are staying in a room on a high floor of a hotel in New York City.
Mir’s family stayed in Qatar until Aug. 19, 2022, when they were moved to a camp in Kosovo because more Afghan refugees were on their way to Qatar, Mir relayed.
At the camp in Kosovo, they learned there was no timetable on their reunification with Mir.
“People told them they had been there a long time,” Mir relayed. “Some had been there a year or two.”
Because the camp was dealing with long-term refugees, it was better equipped; there were educational programs for the children, programs to teach life skills for those who needed them, and they took families on field trips to the nearby city, Mir said.
Mir, who had been living with the Williamses for a few months by then, was able to stay in contact with his family through Whatsapp messages, which eased everyone’s minds a bit.
After months of navigating the refugee program and the reunification program, they were finally notified in May 2023 that they would be heading to the United States, traveling from Kosovo to Istanbul to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
“The flight was long but they were extremely excited so it didn’t seem so long,” Mir said, relaying his mother’s reflections.
They were reunited with Mir on May 25.
“We actually learned before they did that they had been approved to travel,” Christie Williams said. The family arrived late at night on May 24, and the Williamses drove Mir out to see them the next morning.
It was a joyful moment for everyone.
He had gotten very tall in the two years they were separated, which was the first thing everyone noticed, Kamila said. They had seen photos of him, but it still was a surprise when they were together in person.
She also said they were proud of how hard he had studied, earning admission into Harvard.
“They are very thankful that Christie and Greg took care of me and allowed me to stay with them,” Mir relayed from his father.
“It was such a blessing that the U.S. government took us out of Afghanistan,” Mir relayed from his father. “For some parts, it felt like a dream.”
“My siblings still can’t believe it,” Mir said.
Now they are focused on learning the customs of their new country, learning the language and, in time, becoming self-sufficient. There are supports in place to help the family as they transition to life here. The children are set to be enrolled in school.
“(Asma) didn’t wait for the caseworker,” Mir said. “She has been finding out what she needs to do to enroll.”
“I was so happy,” Asma said. “I’m so excited to go to a new school.”
Fazila is planning to start college in the fall, and plans to work to help take care of the family. Eventually, she said, she would like to be a lawyer.
Attaullah and Kamila are focused on learning English and caring for their family. While the family speaks Dari, they said they believe they will learn English more quickly simply because of the necessity of being able to communicate.
Kamila said she is focused on the younger children. Daughters Nargis, 11, and Shukriya, 9, will be in school and son Ali, 5, will be old enough to start. Farzad, 3, will still need time before he is ready to attend.
Eventually, though, Kamila said she thinks she would like to become an interpreter.
Celebrating Mir
While English is still a challenge for much of the family, there are moments at any graduation ceremony that transcend words. Watching your graduate enter the stadium, and seeing him wave as he sees you in the crowd.
Watching him stand and be recognized among the honors graduates, and be honored as a certified bilingual student.
Hearing his name called over the loudspeakers, and seeing the joy as the graduates tossed their caps in the air.
Because Mir’s family cannot yet drive in the U.S., arrangements were made through the school district to send a bus, funded by donations and volunteers, to pick the family up from their home in Camden County and drive them to the graduation. Mir’s uncle, Atta, took a train down from New York City to join the celebration, which included Christie and Greg Williams and their three children, who have been Mir’s anchor and support since January 2022.
They helped Mir navigate the college application process, and started making backup plans for him to work when they realized his status -– he is currently awaiting a ruling on his request for asylum, but the potential for him to be moved to refugee status is being explored.
The Harvard acceptance, with an offer of a full scholarship, changed the equation.
“They loved his story,” of escaping Afghanistan and pursuing his dream of coming to the United States, Christie said.
Mir is planning to study computer science and government. He’s hoping that one day, perhaps far in the future, he could help reunite his country and bring peace.
For now, however, he and his family are simply relishing being back together again after nearly two years apart. That includes his uncle, whom Mir had not seen since being separated at the airport.
“They feel so lucky,” Mir said. “While it was a long journey, they feel hopeful that when their children grow up they can give back to the community.”
“We are very thankful,” Mir said.