9/11 Aftermath

“I was 10 years old. I loved my home in Los Angeles, where my family always gathered in celebration. I couldn’t imagine life beyond the Pacific Ocean. I remember the day we moved to Washington, DC. My cousin, Zarina, and I had stayed up all night crying and saved our soaked tissues in an eyeglass case. Two weeks later, I was in a motorcade on the way to the White House for my father to present his credentials as the first Afghan Ambassador to the United States since the Soviet invasion in 1979 – that’s 23 years! It was one of the few times I saw my Baba cry, when he said, ‘I’m just a poor boy from Coche Ali Reza Khan.’” Jahan Shahryar, co-editor of “Our Shared Stories.”

Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with Jahan prior to her book launch at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington with her co-editor Emal Dusst. As a long time friend of the Shahryars from the time they first arrived to fulfill their diplomatic mission to current times, it brought back many memories of their entertaining at home as well as former President Hamid Karzai’s first visit to The United States at the Embassy.