In the apartment, two-year-old Victoria is dancing in the center of a dozen people. She’s wearing a pink, frilly dress. She stomps her feet and twirls. It’s her birthday party.
Victoria, or Vicky as her parents call her, has never seen Afghanistan. Her mom, Soraiya Nazari, fled when she was still pregnant with her in 2021.
“During these two years, we passed a lot of problems, and a lot of changes that happened and Vicky comes and she make us happy,” Nazari said.
In Afghanistan, Nazari served in the military, alongside U.S. soldiers. So did her husband and sister. For seven years, Nazari was part of a select unit of Afghan women. When U.S. forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban regained control, she and her family fled, fearing retaliation and worried for their safety.
“We were in danger and we decided to leave Afghanistan,” Nazari said.
But it meant starting over. She didn’t know any English. In the time since she’s been in Blacksburg, she’s been studying at an intensive English language program at Virginia Tech and recently graduated. She’ll start community college next semester.
Other women who served in the Afghan Female Tactical Platoon live here too, in this same apartment complex. Like Sima Alizada. “I want to stand on my own feet,” but English is hard,” Alizada said.
Learning English isn’t the only tough thing about starting over. Alizada is also raising her son, Amir, on her own. Her husband was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“I come here because here is a lot of people to help us,” Alizada explained.
She spends most days in English language class, or at work at the Virginia Tech dining hall. Many evenings, like tonight, she brings Amir to this apartment, to play with Victoria.
“My daughter love to play with him,” Nazari said.
Victoria’s mom, Nazari, has been cooking since two this afternoon to prepare for this birthday celebration. She made baklava, rice, and meat cooked in traditional spices.
Tonight’s party is a happy interlude for a small community of refugees, whose future is unknown. They’re waiting to hear if their asylum cases are approved. They all say they miss being soldiers and want to join the U.S. military. But for that to be possible, they would need to become citizens.
Another former soldier, Azizgul Ahmadi, says she doesn’t know if that dream will come true. But she’s determined to make it possible for her teenaged sister, who she is raising.
Ahmadi pours tea after a long day of work at a sandwich shop. “This is green tea and cardamom. I don’t know if you like tea or no, but we love the hot. This is very hot, be careful,” Ahmadi said.
Like the other women, Ahmadi and her sister fled Afghanistan after the Taliban regained control. She wanted to help get more of her family out but, amidst the chaos, it wasn’t safe for them to get into the airport. So Ahmadi and her sisters left their parents and siblings behind.
Ahmadi spends many nights, worried about her family back home. Sometimes in Blacksburg, she sees families who are together, hugging.
“I saw everybody is happy. And I am sad. It is very hard,” Ahmadi said quietly, her eyes filling with tears. “I am not jealous. Just, hard for me, my family is not here. We are far away.”
Her sister, Shah Pari, is studying in her high school’s ROTC military training class next semester. For now, Ahmadi is focusing all her hopes that her sister will be able to attend Virginia Tech and, eventually, join the U.S. military.
“Right now I am not thinking about my dream. I am thinking about my family and about my sister,” Ahmadi said.
This story is part of a collaboration between Radio IQ and photojournalist Heather Rousseau with the Roanoke Times. Click here to watch a video she made of Victoria’s birthday party celebration.
