Afghan Refugees

ITHACA COMMUNITY WELCOMES NINE AFGHAN REFUGEES AS THEY ATTEND CORNELL DURING SPRING SEMESTER

BY OLIVIA STANZL

Diana Ayubi arrived in Ithaca months after escaping Afghanistan as the Taliban gained control of the country. Ayubi expected to end up in Bangladesh but, after multiple diversions, was placed in the United States. She is one of nine Afghan refugees who are attending Cornell University for Spring 2022 after arriving in Ithaca in late 2021. Ithaca College housed some of the students last semester. After the United States ended its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban took control and the country plunged into economic despair. Additionally, President Joe Biden’s administration froze billions of dollars in humanitarian aid and imposed crushing sanctions on the country, resulting in 23 million Afghans facing extreme levels of hunger, according to the United Nations. There are 2.6 million registered Afghan refugees spread throughout the world, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. Ayubi said she planned to fee to Bangladesh but was redirected to Saudi Arabia — the frst of many redirections in her journey — where she was informed she would not be able to enter Bangladesh. “The system was totally changed,” Ayubi said. “They said, ‘We have no idea where your destination is.’” After 36 hours in Saudi Arabia, Ayubi was told by the U.S. military that it was moving her, and other refugees traveling with Ayubi, out of the country. “There was no information about the destination,” Ayubi said. “When the plane arrived, they said ‘Welcome to Spain. You’re in Spain.’” Days of waiting passed and Ayubi ended up in the U.S. at a military base in Wisconsin. After three months, Ayubi was placed in New York state and informed she would be studying at Cornell University where she enrolled as a psychology major. Ayubi and her classmates were assisted in their escape by the Asian University for Women (AUW), an independent regional institution located in Bangladesh that focuses on women’s education and leadership, according to its webpage. The school opened in 2008 with a total of 130 young women from many countries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AUW was closed for in-person classes for almost two years and sent its students back to their home countries, including about 150 students who were from Afghanistan. Ayubi was in her fnal year of schooling at the Asian University for Women where she studied public health. Ayubi said public health was not what she really wanted to study, but AUW does not offer a psychology degree. “When I came to Cornell, I changed my major,” Ayubi said. “I want to be a therapist and I want to have my own clinic. I can achieve my dream of what I was thinking when I was in high school.” Tim DeVoogd, a psychology professor at Cornell, has been on the AUW Board of Trustees for approximately two years. After hearing that the Afghan students were displaced, DeVoogd notifed Cornell that they would be looking for places to stay. “I think Cornell, specifcally, and Ithaca, in general, have been amazingly welcoming,” DeVoogd said. “There’s been a whole lot of people in Ithaca who have volunteered meals or potential homestays.” Ithaca College housed some of the refugees, including Ayubi. She said the staff was helpful and kind. “It was out of my expectations,”Ayubi said. “Even though I’m in Cornell, sometimes I really miss Ithaca College.” Marsha Dawson, director of the Offce of Residential Life and the Offce of Student Conduct and Community Standards, provided leadership in the college’s role of housing the women. Dawson did not respond to requests for comment. Ithaca Welcomes Refugees (IWR), a volunteer-based organization that was founded in 2015 in response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis, worked with the refugees to help them sign up for necessities like public health benefts. Casey Verderosa, executive director of IWR, said the organization also works to get the women what they need through fundraisers in the community. “We have a really, really great network in the community, and this community is extremely supportive of refugees,” Verderosa said. “It’s wonderful how the community, including the major educational institutions and just regular people, really gathered around to support this group of women. I think it is really affrming of the goodness of the human spirit.” Cornell senior Willow Martin is president of Women’s Higher Education Now (WHEN), a student organization that explores the intersectionality of issues like gender equality, sustainable development and equitable education. Martin said that once WHEN was alerted that the crisis in Afghanistan was leading to the students being evacuated to the U.S., it wanted to fnd ways to ensure that the women would have the resources they need while staying here. DeVoogd is the club adviser of WHEN and has helped to affliate the organization with AUW. “They had left with literally a carry-on,” DeVoogd said. “They didn’t have clothes. They didn’t have books. [WHEN] raised $550 each for these nine students for winter coats or fxing up their dorm rooms, just so things could be nice.” The group raised $4,950 from Oct. 25 until the end of the fall semester and donated it to the nine refugees as a way to help to provide fnancial support to the students. WHEN held a clothing drive in conjunction with the fundraiser in which Martin said it received lots of winter gear. “I think any community would be made stronger by having members as brilliant, strong and kind as these young women,” Martin said. “While they were living at [Fort] McCoy Air Force Base in Wisconsin, they spent much of their time teaching other Afghan refugees English. … It’s an honor … to welcome people like them into the Ithaca community.” Ayubi said that her time at Cornell has been busy with meetings and meeting new people and that everyone has been welcoming and supportive. “Here, I’m not having any relatives I know or family,” Ayubi said. “So on my side is Cornell right now and those people that are around me.”

From left, Tamana Ahmadi, Sepehra Azami, Diana Ayubi and Simah Sahnosh talk at Cornell University on Dec. 1. Courtesy of Jason Koski

LOCAL UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY COMES TOGETHER TO PROTEST THE RUSSIAN MILITARY INVASION

BY ELIJAH DE CASTRO

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian national salute “Slava Ukrayini” — which means “glory to Ukraine” — has become a symbol of resistance. On March 6, this salute was chanted by the Ukrainian community of Ithaca during an anti-war protest at Ithaca’s Bernie Milton Pavillion. The war was initiated in February, with Russian forces invading Feb. 24. As the war concluded its second week, protests supporting Ukraine and opposing the Russian invasion happened all around the world, including in Russia, where protesting the war is illegal. At the March 6 protest on The Commons, approximately 80 people attended, waving Ukrainian flags and carrying anti-war signs. Tetiana Urazgildiieva, a Ukrainian American from Ithaca, attended the protest with her son. Urazgildiieva is from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, which has been at the center of the Russian offensive. Urazgildiieva said that since the invasion has begun, she has lost sleep while trying to stay updated on her family and two sons, who are in Kyiv. “My eldest son is in college already,” Urazgildiieva said. “He called me [the first night of the invasion] saying, ‘Mom, it’s war, but I can’t believe it.’ I started looking into the news and I realized that it is happening. My first reaction was to call my relatives. They were in shock. They were so scared at first and it probably took them a day just to realize what was happening.” Throughout the invasion, the Russian military has attacked Ukrainian civilians, sometimes with illegal munition like cluster bombs, which detonate in flight and can destroy anything in a radius of several football fields. Russian forces have attacked nuclear power plants, holy sites and schools. On Feb. 28, 16 Ukrainian children were killed in a nursery school bombing in Okhtyrka, a city in northeastern Ukraine. “I do not sleep,” Urazgildiieva said. “I do not. I just checked in with each one of them [her family members]. If they are in contact, I am relieved for today. But if I lose contact, I cannot continue doing anything, even though I need to go to work. My mind is over there constantly. It’s very, very difficult.” Jonathan Ablard, professor in the Ithaca College Department of History, attended the protest to show solidarity with Ukraine. On March 3, Ablard and Zenon Wasyliw, professor in the Department of History, moderated a discussion panel on the war in Ukraine that had over 550 attendees. Ablard said the protest gave him sadness and frustration that the issue is larger than the actions that one person can do to help. “It made me sad to have it reinforced that there’s no clear answer for what we can do in the United States,” Ablard said. “It is heartbreaking, and to see people whose families are in real peril made it all the more poignant.” Olena Vatamaniuk, professor at Cornell University, and her husband Marco Vatamaniuk, senior research associate at Cornell, are from Lviv, Ukraine, and attended the protest. “I could say to everyone that this goes beyond Ukraine because it just shows you that it is possible for this to happen in the 21st century,” Olena Vatamaniuk said. “If the world won’t stop it, then which country will be next? It’s a nightmare for us. We don’t really sleep.” At the protest, flyers were pasted around the Bernie Milton Pavilion with QR codes that link to fundraisers, petitions and Google Docs with letter templates for protestors to send to their representatives. Despite this, the protestors had differing views on how to resolve the war. Some, like Urazgildiieva, called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine. This would mean that all aircraft would be barred from flying in Ukrainian airspace. Russian planes that continue to fly over Ukraine would be shot down by NATO planes. While declaring a no-fly zone would help to protect Ukrainians from Russian shelling, it would escalate the war. If a no-fly zone were to be declared, the war would escalate and would be between Russia and NATO, both of which are nuclear superpowers. “They should cover the skies,” Urazgildiieva said. “A no-fly zone is very, very important. Today, over a peaceful city of Vinnytsia, they bombed civilians. Why would they do that? Just to scare us, to break our strong souls and our strong minds.” Amala Lane, program initiatives and media coordinator for the Center for International Studies at Cornell, said that while the war has flooded her with tremendous sadness, she understands the reluctance to declare a no-fly zone. “I’m older, so I saw the Berlin Wall fall,” Lane