Afghans Empowered

Afghans Empowered sits down with local licensed therapist, Sara Stanizai, owner and practitioner of Prospect Therapy. We take a tour through her many services, and her specialization in therapy for queer, transgender, and first-generation clients. We talk about the intersectionality between  gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, and the need to acknowledge cultural differences in order to be sensitive to the individual experience of self-identity, and mental health issues. Sara shares with our listeners her method for facilitating a conversation and session about self validation and acceptance, for individuals struggling to accept their true selves. As first generation Afghan Americans, we bond over the buffer life we live, oscillating between two different cultures and learning to accept and love a unique identity that makes up the Afghan-American experience. Sara is offering an Afghan American Women’s group where she will be tackling on “imposter syndrome”, a topic we refer back to several times throughout our conversation. For more information on Prospect Therapy, visit ProspectTherapy.com

Support the show

Afghans Empowered sits down with team members from the award-winning organization, Skateistan. This organization seeks to empower children in underprivileged communities through the power of skateboarding and education. Since its inception, Skateistan has impacted thousands of children in Afghanistan, South Africa, and Cambodia. We journey through the discussion of operations in Afghanistan, with a focus on the programs that help students accelerate their academic skills with the help of Skateistan. Providing life long skills to help students flourish after graduating from their many programs, Skateistan’s community-dependent strategies ensures that solutions are drive and led by Afghan men and women, to promote community self reliance. 

Support the show

In this episode, join us as we highlight what Afghans Empowered has been up to recently. This episode is to help you stay up to date with all our Q+A’s, and to once again thank all the fantastic guests who’ve come onto our podcast to discuss their projects and organizations. We’ve learned so much from our experiences so far, and can’t wait to continue expanding our community outreach to connect ourselves with our Afghan communities worldwide. Stay tuned for regular updates as we begin preparing to expand our organization to invite more team members! We’ll be updating our followers soon on ways to intern and volunteer with Afghans Empowered. Finally, this episode is just a way for us to thank all our listeners and supporters, because you are the ones that motivate us to continue driving our mission. 

Support the show

In this episode, we get the chance to chat with the talented Ariana Abawe, or better known as Ariana the Journalist. As a British-Afghan journalist from the UK, Ariana’s work explores the Afghan identity from both the diaspora and in the motherland. She has an extensive journalist portfolio: publishing, collaborating, and co-creating projects that showcase a wide variety of mediums in journalism. Her latest project, the center topic of focus for this conversation, is the release of the first issue of her brand new magazine, Ariana Magazine. The magazine is available in both physical, and digital print. This magazine is filled from page to page, with inspiring, fun, and engaging content that highlights Afghan identity, culture, and excellence in a wide range of industries. Ariana’s mission is to provide a voice for representing the beauty of Afghanistan and the heritages founded from its diverse lands.  Ariana’s careful curation of this issue really shines through and we discuss her journey, inspiration, and methods for creating her first issue. Tune in as we talk all things identity, representation, and magazines! 

Support the show

In this episode, Afghans Empowered sits down with local freelance artist, Deeva Momand, who’s better known as @TheAfghanDiva. This local artist from Southern California captures the attention of a niche audience with her subjects and themes, and for all the right reasons! Her artwork incorporates pop culture, with Afghan culture. Many of her subjects from her digital media collection showcase Afghan femininity and masculinity. Join us as we sit down and talk about her artwork, her inspirations, and reflect upon the representation of Afghans in the world of art. No matter what path Deeva decides to take, she fully embraces her love for art and understands how her work has struck a chord with her followers, who love to see digital media represent a unique identity, within the modern context. TheAfghanDiva can be found on Instagram, and to purchase her prints, check out her Etsy page! 

Support the show

In this episode, we sit down with a very special guest who has been wanting to join our podcast for quite some time. We take the conversation through a journey of analyzing how Covid-19 has impacted our access to quality education. As students of various academic levels, we all can agree that those Zoom meetings we are expected to sit through, are just not ideal. The topic of the discussion is simple, but there are so many implications behind remote education. Socio economic status, and social dynamics, will play a major role in the future of students' educations this fall season as remote learning will uncover many issues in accessibility, and exacerbate challenging dynamics within families. We briefly explore how certain groups are more likely to be disadvantaged by remote learning, such as the recently arrived immigrants from Afghanistan, and first generation American students that have to learn how to use the technology by themselves. The education system of the US currently faces many issues, and we hope that as we continue to adhere to current guidelines due to Covid-19, that our institutions will provide adequate support to help us get through these difficult times. 

Support the show

Generational trauma has become an increasing topic of study as researchers correlate the symptoms of trauma to biology. Early research supports the theory that generational trauma is genetically passed down from parents to children, and so forth. In this episode, we explore the history of trauma in our family, through their journeys as refugees from Afghanistan. Each step in their journey has complied levels of high stress and trauma that has shaped their physiology, and we believe this has impacted us, the children of refugees, in ways beyond the surface level. Second-hand trauma has posed challenges to families dealing with symptoms of mental health issues that seem obscure and whose source are difficult to determine. However we believe that with the understanding of trauma, we can take a step back and re-evaluate our experiences in order to produce adequate conclusions about our mental health so that we can focus on improving our health. Join the conversation about trauma, and help us spread the message as we continue to learn about how this subject can become central to the lives of our diaspora communities. We seek to empower the conversation about mental health in order to destigmatize it, and work in community efforts to find solutions.

Support the show

The current Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the lives and health of people around the globe. In the US, cases have increased and a second wave has hit its most populous cities. Research about the impacts of the pandemic in the US have provided evidence that marginalized communities and minorities are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. In this episode, we discuss the research findings from various sources that indicate Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous, and other minorities are disadvantaged due to systematic inequalities In healthcare, labor force, and housing. These factors have created environments where the marginalized communities have a greater risk of exposure to, and illness from Covid-19. We correlate the findings in disproportionate access, to our evaluation of the current situation in Afghanistan. The pandemic has unveiled many flaws in the social and economic systems in nations around the globe. Countries such as Afghanistan, have had a slim fighting chance from the start. But within the conversation, we highlight the resilience and unity of communities in Afghanistan who have taken public health initiatives in their own hands, in order to educate their communities and prevent the spread of Covid-19. The discussion of Covid-19 will continue for quite some time, and our conversation of the ongoing pandemic isn’t quite overdue.

Support the show

How does the term “idealistic” undermine our way of thinking, if its viewed in a negative framework? In this episode, the term idealist is analyzed in relation to the ways in which current events through powerful movements have presented our frame of ideas for a future  of equality for all. To many who try to uphold archaic paradigms and narratives about society, we can seem like absurd dreamers, radicals, and anarchists, for our ways of thinking. Yet our frame of mind is the foundation for our ability as activists to demand social change in our communities. No matter the issue, our understanding of today’s world comes from our fearlessness to answer the biggest questions about inequality, and demand a real concrete answer to these questions. In the strive for global equity and preservation of human rights, we are the crucial players who can demand change at a systemic level. 

Support the show

Re-introduction to the introduction. A long overdue conversation between two sisters/founders that we're happy to finally share. We take some time to briefly share the background to our upbringing and our worldview; and everything in between the years of our self discovery of a unique identity. Being Afghan-American means quite a bit, and frankly we can't do enough justice to explaining this identity in simply one conversation. But as we grow this organization, we will grow with it too and reflect on our identity through this journey. We're three months in already, and feel like we've hit the ground running. The connections we've made through our community efforts have motivated us to keep making strides in providing representation and advocacy for our people. 

We have so much currently in the works, and great plans for the future. We are excited to share that we will be forming our community organization and platform into a non-profit organization. This decision has undergone a meticulous and thorough process of research and preparation. Our decision will enable us to start campaign projects and begin fundraising for causes that we hope to provide long term solutions for. In the mean-time we still are collecting funds for our "Build a water well" campaign, and really want to highlight our efforts for this campaign. We also take a moment to promote the upcoming event #stopkillingAfghans happening in LA on Sunday, July 12th. With so much going on, we do our best to keep up with current events, and we sincerely hope we have been able to serve our community well thus far, as this is only the beginning of the fantastic things coming up.

Ultimately, getting to sit down together and introduce ourselves feels cathartic. We are learning and growing everyday through our management of our platform, and we are learning more about our heritage through our growth. Because, for each and every one of us, our ultimate goal is to share a level of motivation and self esteem for our identities as we pursue greatness, but also as we face the trials and tribulations that can affect our lives in different ways. Whether we are from the homeland or abroad, we are united by a heritage that we believe can empower us to become motivated in our everyday world. 

This is Afghans Empowered. 

Support the show