Afghan refugees want to go home but don't plan to stay

By Teresa Puente and Ana Beatriz Cholo, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter John Keilman contributed to this report

From the Chicago Tribune February 1, 2002

Abdul Wardak has not seen his family's home in Kabul for more than 20 years. But in a few months, he plans to go back to rebuild that house and explore investments in Afghanistan.

"There was no way to go back before," said Wardak, 48, who owns a Chicago business importing carpets and crafts made by Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

"For the first time in the last 20 years, I feel confident there will be a good future."

Wardak was encouraged in his plans this week when Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, visited the United States and urged his countrymen to go home and help rebuild their homeland.

Like Wardak, several Afghan expatriates interviewed Thursday said they were receptive to Karzai's message and may soon take their first trip home in years.

But none said they would stay there indefinitely. And some said that although they would like to go back, they would wait until the country is safer. There is still conflict among tribal groups, they said, and the presence of U.S. forces cannot guarantee total security.

Some Afghans said they didn't want to give up the comforts of life in the U.S. completely. Many of their children were born here and would have a difficult adjustment to make.

Afghan refugees who have just arrived in the U.S. are even more reluctant to go back.

"They've all decided that at this time it's not safe for them to return or not in their family's best interest," said Beth Sethi, refugee resettlement director of World Relief in Aurora, which has helped eight Afghan families settle in the Chicago suburbs. "There's still no infrastructure; there are doubts that the peace will be permanent."

Shola Yawari, 29, arrived in the U.S. five months ago. The Taliban killed her father, and her husband was imprisoned, she said.

It's still too dangerous to go back, she said, and it would be difficult to find work and a home.

"Now if I go to Afghanistan with my two children where would I live?" said Yawari, who lives in Aurora. An architectural engineer in Afghanistan, she has found a job here as a seamstress.

She would like to help rebuild her country, but only if she could return to the U.S., she said.

Mohammad Basir Amamdad, 27, said his father also was killed by the Taliban. He wants a better future for his three children and believes he has found it in Aurora.

"My children like it here. They don't want to go back," he said.

Wardak, who lives in Arlington Heights, said he also must consider his family. It was only last year that his wife and six children left their refuge in Pakistan for the U.S.

"My children want to go back, but I want a better education for my children," said Wardak, who would like to visit Afghanistan for at least three months.

Samia Saljooqi, of Northbrook, left Afghanistan more than 20 years ago and has three sons who were born here.

"If I didn't have kids, I would leave tomorrow," said Saljooqi, 45, who works in real estate and owns a beauty salon.

She sends money to Afghan refugee camps and has hosted refugee families in her home. She would like to work with children in Afghanistan but said it will be several years before she will visit.

"People are still afraid," Saljooqi said.

Other immigrants and refugees have faced similar fears. Some Polish families from Chicago returned home after the fall of communism a decade ago, and Guatemalans moved back after peace accords were signed ending a 36-year civil war in 1996.

Making the transition can be difficult.

"The more people become used to the ease of living in the U.S., the harder it becomes to return to a country where the telephone system doesn't work," said Karen Popowski, executive director of the Polish American Association.

Mohammad Rashan, 51, a contract administrator, wants to return home to Afghanistan and open a business, but it would be a hardship for his American wife and his son.

"We are hopeful that under [Karzai's] leadership that Afghanistan will turn around very quickly," said Rashan, who left his country 25 years ago and lives in Naperville.

"I think there's great hope."