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Afghan Refugees Find Hope in Heartland
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
The Associated Press

She applied last year through the United Nations to enter the United States as a refugee. "I wanted to come here for the education," said Khan, 41. "In Pakistan, I did not make enough money for my children to have a better life."

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- AP
Afghan refugee Zahra Mular Dilbar was barely able to support her nine children after the Taliban made her a widow.

Now a grateful Dilbar and eight of her children, along with another Afghan family, live in Kansas City, Kan., where they arrived last month. They are among the few refugees admitted to the United States since Sept. 11.

"I felt free getting off the plane in Kansas City," Dilbar, 41, said through a translator. "There was nothing to be scared of. We are free now. Anything is possible."

Dilbar fled northern Afghanistan to the border town of Quetta, Pakistan, in 1998 after her husband was gunned down. He had made enemies when he prevented a member of the Taliban from marrying his eldest daughter.

"My husband said, 'You have too many wives and too many children. I won't give you my daughter,'" she said. "The Taliban came to the house the next day and entered through the back door. They killed my husband and set the house on fire."

Dilbar worked as a maid and mended clothes to buy necessities for her children. But she was fearful, because Pakistan then supported the Taliban.
(More: The Pratt Tribune News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan