By Alexander Dworkowitz
Part of a series
In December, Masuda Sultan, a 22-year-old Queens College graduate who grew up in Flushing, went to Afghanistan in search of her family.
Having co-founded the Young Afghan World Alliance in August, Sultan has been active in raising funds for civilians in war-ravaged Afghanistan. Her visibility led to an offer to send her and a camera crew to Afghanistan, where just last summer she had visited more than a dozen of her relatives.
When Sultan arrived at the village in December, she learned from the few who remained there that her relatives had been killed after the United States bombed the village.
“They described this unbelievable, horrific scene,” said Sultan. “They were running out of their houses, trying to get away from these bombs.”
When Sultan returned to the United States, the “CBS Early Show” aired footage of Sultan’s visit to her ancestral land. The Pentagon acknowledged the bombing of the village but said it had information that the target was a Taliban stronghold.
On Monday, Sultan described her story to an audience of students at Queens College, from which she graduated only 10 months ago.
While most Afghan-American students have not returned to their homeland recently, Sultan’s desire to get involved is not an isolated case. As America’s focus has turned to Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, a young generation of Afghan Americans has become active in the relief efforts for the nation even though most have never been to the South Asian country.
Queens has become the center of the Afghan population in the northeastern United States. While Flushing’s two Afghan mosques as well as Afghan cafés are the traditional meeting spots for the older generation of Queens Afghans, Queens College and Queensborough Community College have become the focal point of the Afghan youth.
Afifa Yusufi, a friend of Sultan, is also working hard to raise awareness and support for impoverished Afghan civilians. The daughter of the imam of the Afghan Immigrants Islamic Center, Mohammad Yusufi, the 23-year-old founded the Afghan Student Association of Queens College in January.
Since most Afghans came to the United States after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the current generation of Afghan college students for the most part has never lived in Afghanistan or else left the country at such a young age that they do not remember it.
Because of that difference, Yusufi said many in her generation disagree with the ideas of their parents about Afghanistan.
“There are Afghan Americans who have a totally different view than the older Afghans,” she said.
Yusufi outlined several goals for the Afghan Student Association. She hopes to help Sultan with her project to get the United States to earmark $20 million for civilians in Afghanistan. And she believes that by inviting speakers like Sultan to her organization, she can increase the understanding of Afghan-Americans among her fellow students as well as Queens residents.
But just as importantly, Yusufi sees the group as helping young Afghan Americans get to know their history.
“All of a sudden, we’re beginning to get to know who we are,” said Yusufi.
For many of the younger generation of Afghans, the recent examination of their roots comes after years of feeling somewhat at odds with their ancestry.
“I’m not good with my native language, which is hard,” said Freshta Aminzada, a 22-year-old Queens College student and resident of Kew Gardens Hills.
But other Afghans have always retained an interest in their history.
“All my life I’ve tried to look back at Afghanistan,” said Pakiza Rassoul, a 21-year-old Queens College student from Whitestone.
Yusufi hopes ASA can help reinforce ties between the younger Afghans, who lack many of the institutional connections of their parents.
Sultan has already had some success as a leader of the Afghan-American youth movement. After appearing on a radio show with a 70-year-old woman who lost her brother in the attack on the World Trade Center, Sultan inspired several families whose relatives died in the terrorist attacks to travel to Afghanistan.
When they returned to the United States, the families pledged support to Sultan’s cause.
After Sultan’s talk, many Afghan-American students, such as Myra Mehinder, a 21-year-old Queens College student, expressed a desire to return to Afghanistan and participate in relief efforts.
“Most of us want to go out there and help,” she said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
