Middle East and South Asia
Afghanistan: Refugees Who Became U.S. Diplomats
From Afghanistan to the service of the United States.
The Soviet invasion
Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in December 1979. Over the following decade, millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran, in one of the largest refugee movements of the late twentieth century. Smaller numbers were resettled in the United States, many in northern Virginia and California.
2021
When Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, the United States carried out a massive evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport. Some of the American diplomats who worked that evacuation had once fled Afghanistan themselves.
Diplomats from Afghanistan
Baktash AhadiCrossed the Hindu Kush on foot as a child and later taught American diplomats about Afghanistan.Rina AmiriBecame a refugee as a small child when her family left Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.Rahima KandahariA young political refugee from Afghanistan who became the first Afghan American woman Foreign Service officer.Dr. Nabila MassoumiHer family crossed out of Afghanistan on foot disguised as nomads; she became a Foreign Service officer.Mustafa M. PopalFled Kabul after the Soviet invasion and returned to the same airport to help run the 2021 evacuation.Sulaiman ToghralLeft Taliban-ruled Afghanistan at nine and, as a U.S. diplomat, helped process Afghan evacuees in 2021.