The Lovers (51 page)

7
.   A couple typical Facebook pages (most are in Dari): www.facebook.com/pages/Campaign-for-Supporting-Afghan-Lovers/1498540123693615 and http://on.fb.me/1BaiRht.

8
.   June 11, 2014.

9
.   Zakia and Ali, in order to qualify for asylum, would first have to apply for refugee status in a neighboring country (or any country they could manage to reach). Then they would have to demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution, based on at least one recognized criterion: persecution because of political, racial, ethnic, or religious reasons or membership in a persecuted social group. They qualified on four of those criteria: ethnic and religious, since opposition to their wedding was based on the fact that she was Tajik and he was Hazara and she Sunni and he Shia; racial, because Hazaras are racially distinct from Tajiks; and membership in a persecuted social group, in this case, Afghans who insist on choosing their own mates. So they would probably be processed fairly quickly and granted asylum in one of those neighboring countries, which could be India, Pakistan, or Tajikistan; it could not be Iran, which prohibits new refugee-asylum applications.

Once they were in a neighboring country and registered as refugees, it would technically be up to UNHCR to decide which country was most appropriate for the couple’s resettlement, and American officials had insisted that a more appropriate country would be somewhere like Sweden, which has generous language and literacy programs as well as welfare support for refugees who are illiterate. In the United States, it is sink or swim for refugees; even legal immigrants get only a couple thousand dollars and a volunteer sponsor to show them around. The couple’s situation was different, though, in that they had willing sponsors in America and ones with substantial means, which few refugees normally have.

10
.   United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, “Humanitarian Parole,” contains an outline of the law on humanitarian parole at www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/humanitarian-parole.

11
.   The Grossman Burn Center, press release, Aug. 31, 2010, “Mutilated Afghan girl comes to L.A. for treatment,” www.grossmanburncenter.com/mutilated-afghan-girl-comes-to-la-for-treatment.php.

11: BACK TO THE HINDU KUSH

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3
.   The singer’s official website, www.ahmadzahir.com/sub/biography.html, includes an account of his assassination. A
New York Times
account on Mar. 20, 2003, by Amy Waldman has a differing version of Zahir’s death. See www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/world/kabul-journal-the-afghan-elvis-lives-24-years-after-his-death.html.

12: MULLAH MOHAMMAD JAN

1
.   BBC News, “Afghan ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Still Fear for Their Lives,” Aug. 11, 2014, online video at www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-28662822.

2
.   Azam Ahmed and Matthew Rosenberg,
New York Times,
Jan. 19, 2014, p. A8, “Deadly Attack at Kabul Restaurant Hints at Changing Climate for Foreigners,” www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/world/asia/afghanistan-restaurant-attack.html.

3
.   International Organization for Migration, World Migration chart, 2014, at www.iom.int/world-migration. See also the website of Statistics Canada, National Household Survey, 2011, www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=0 1&Data=Count&SearchText=Langley&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR =01&A1=Ethnic%20origin&B1=All&Custom=&TABID=1.

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5
.   Ali had taken out a ringtone subscription with the cell-phone carrier; he paid Etisalat a fee of fifty afghanis to join their ringtone plan, to download unlimited tunes, and then five afghanis (about ten U.S. cents) to renew the plan each month. The menus were voice-guided, so he could work his way through them without needing to read.

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7
.   Technically this is not a mortgage, because the loan of money at interest is considered un-Islamic and most devout Afghans will not do it. Instead the creditor gets the use of the land and any profit from it, which potentially could earn the creditor as much as or more than interest would, but that would depend on how well they worked the land and how good the harvest was, so it is considered a religiously acceptable workaround. Once the debtor repaid the principal, the land would return to him without interest charges.

8
.   A Western mind might shudder at the thought of such widespread corruption, but by and large the Afghans do not see things that way. Bribery is such a part of public life that most uneducated people without connections would assume that was the only way to try to influence events. For them it is more of a way of life than a criminal act.

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.   Afghanistan ranks as 172nd-worst out of 177 countries studied in 2014, while Tajikistan was 162nd. See Transparency International infographic, Corruption Perceptions Index, www.transparency.org/cpi2014/infographic.

12
.   Matthew Rosenberg,
New York Times,
Mar. 17, 2014, p. A3, “Facts Elusive in Kabul Death of Swedish Reporter,” www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/facts-elusive-in-kabul-death-of-swedish-reporter.html.

13
.   We were unable to determine the source of this verse.

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13: IN THE LAND OF THE BOTTOM-FEEDERS

1
.   The State Department cable, unearthed by Wikileaks, was published on-line by the
Guardian
at www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/248969.

2
.   In addition, the businessman, who spoke in confidence because he still has relatives living in Tajikistan, was forced by the tax collector to pay his taxes into the collector’s private bank account and then was later charged with tax evasion for not having paid the taxes to the government; when he complained, he was charged with extortion and defamation as well. “They are the most insanely greedy people I have ever seen,” he said. “They make the Afghans look like the Swiss.” He managed to bribe his way over the border, abandoning his investments. I met him a few months after his escape.