“The power of choosing your own narrative”: Afghan students host panel discussion and Iftar dinner to celebrate diasporic experiences
Lives Across Nations highlights diverse Afghan experiences beyond mainstream narratives of war, trauma, and geopolitics.
On February 27, the University of Toronto (U of T) Mississauga (UTM)’s Afghan Students’ Association (ASA) hosted Lives Across Nations, a panel discussion and Iftar dinner that aimed to capture how notions of identity, belonging, and diaspora intersect for Afghan-Canadians.
The panel’s first guest speaker was Ferdouse Asefi, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology whose research explores themes of ethnic and diasporic identity formation in Canada and multicultural spaces. The next panellist was Moska Rokay, another U of T PhD candidate in the Faculty of Information, whose research aims to use diverse archival methods to document Afghan stories in Canada as well as identity formation and resistance through memory-keeping. The last speaker was author and narrative strategist Mina Sharif, whose journalistic and literary work mixes cultural storytelling and political commentary.
While there are many issues facing Afghan communities both abroad and in Canada, conversations about Afghanistan tend to centre on stories of war, trauma, regional conflicts, gender oppression, and religious fundamentalism. According to ASA President Sonia Qarin, she decided to take the Lives Across Nations panel discussion in a different direction after attending one of Asefi’s classes about race and ethnicity, where Sharif spoke about her personal experiences regarding the subject.
“That conversation introduced a deeper framework around diaspora, identity, and the power of choosing your own narrative, which ended up shaping the theme of this event,” Qarin wrote in an email-interview with The Medium.
The panel was followed by a short Q&A period, prayer, and the community Iftar dinner featuring staples from Afghan cuisine such as Kabuli pulao—the national dish of Afghanistan and made of fragrant rice mixed with veal, raisins, and carrots—kabobs, and potato curry.
Honouring identity: What did panellists discuss?
Each panellist used their area of research or background to explore Afghan experiences. Asefi’s sociological research on the daily experiences of Afghans in the Canadian diaspora set the intellectual foundations for the panel. According to Asefi, research on Afghans is not only sparse but also risks homogenizing the ethnic diversity of the nation into a single image or idea. Through his research, Asefi tries to “go away from things that focus on trauma and pain and suffering of the community to really focus on the strengths of the community.”
In addition, Rokay’s archival research involves collecting stories, documents, images, home videos, and other digital media to bring the history of Afghans in Canada out of the shadows. According to Rokay, standard archival practices—which focus on physical documents—may fail to capture the nuances of immigrant and refugee communities.
In order to challenge the historic underrepresentation of Afghan stories in Canadian archives, Rokay approaches memory-keeping through community-based practices. Rokay says that the information that is archived over time becomes fact, “and that influences how you see whole groups of people and the histories of those people.”
Lastly, keynote speaker Sharif spoke about her experience of returning to Afghanistan after several years away. Sharif grew up in Canada due to her family’s forced relocation, but returned to her homeland in 2005 for a volunteer trip, which extended into a longer stay lasting until 2019. During her talk, Sharif explained how she expected to encounter hostilities and discomfort upon returning, a concern based on mainstream news headlines about Afghanistan, but was instead met with kindness, hospitality, and community.
“Having lived and worked extensively in both Canada and Afghanistan, [Sharif] brings insight into what it means to move between nations while navigating identity, belonging, and narrative power,” wrote Qarin.
Why Afghan experiences matter
In reviving the ASA last academic year, one of Qarin and her team’s goals was to make space for the unique experience of being in a diaspora: “Given UTM’s diversity, we hoped this panel would speak not only to Afghan students but to anyone navigating questions of belonging—and we are happy to see that reflected in the turnout,” continued Qarin.
Qarin also went on to say that Afghanistan’s ethnic and linguistic diversity often gets consumed by the decades of “conflict, displacement, and shifting political regimes” that caused multiple waves of migration and migration stories. “This is not uncommon in other countries,” added ASA Vice President Sabrina Mateen. “What makes the Afghan diaspora so unique is that there aren’t many of us, and our languages or culture isn’t shared across borders—making it even more important to cultivate these kinds of spaces.”
Opinion Editor (Volume 51); Associate Opinion Editor (Volume 50) — Mashiyat (Mash) is a third-year student studying Neuroscience and Professional Writing and Communication (PWC). As this year’s Opinion Editor, Mash hopes to use her writing, editorial, and leadership skills in supporting student journalism in the essential role it plays in fostering intellectual freedom and artistic expression on campuses. When she’s not writing or slaving away at school, Mash uses her free time cooking cultural dishes, striking up conversations with strangers, and being anxious about her nebulous career plans. You can connect with Mash on her LinkedIn.