The Sunday New York Times ran a story on Zohra Saed, an Afghan-American poet who teaches at the City University of New York, who is helping a fellow Afghan poet leave Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Secular writers in that country, including poets, are targets of the new regime and their lives and their families' lives are in danger.
Ms Saed is doing something about it. That's an understatement. For doing something about a life and death problem ten thousand miles away is a thorny, multi-layered challenge. First there's communicating with the writer in danger. Then there's accounting for the writer's family. Getting into the U.S. right now, no matter who you are, involves getting past one big obstacle after another in the pandemic. Visa applications are backlogged. Visa administration staff are depleted and overworked. Urgency is always an issue. In this Afghan poet's case, it's taking not only Ms Saed but her City University colleagues, friends, donors and agencies all working together just to get one writer and his family out of the country and into the U.S.
I'm going to try to do something about it. I'm reaching out to Ms Saed today to offer whatever assistance she needs and that I can provide. Not just because I am a poet, but because I am a human being, and an American with means.
I post the link to this story today because you might want to know and to help yourself, especially if you too are an American with means.
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