Fifteen years ago, only a handful of families from Afghanistan called the Charlotte region home. But since the U.S. withdrew troops from Afghanistan last summer and the Taliban seized control, around 300 evacuees are restarting their lives in the region. Many gathered Sunday to celebrate Nowruz, which marks the beginning of spring.
Mariam Merzaee has always looked forward to celebrating Nowruz.
“Nowruz is the beginning of the year, so we celebrated with meeting friends, having fun, and having music,” Merzaee said.
There’s also lots of food, including the essential fruit compote called haft mewa. Nowruz is known as the Persian New Year and is celebrated in places including Afghanistan, Iran and parts of the Middle East to mark the vernal equinox.
The food, the music, the bright dresses and traditional clothes were all a part of this Nowruz celebration at Reedy Creek Nature Center and Preserve in northeast Charlotte. A couple hundred people attended.
“It will be difficult for me to celebrate outside the home country, but I’m trying to be good to do it well,” Merzaee said.
Men clustered around the picnic tables and volleyball court, and women and children gathered a few steps away in and around a cabin. Like Merzaee, many of them fled Afghanistan in the rush last August as the U.S. was pulling out.
It was the newcomers Amin Ziaee had in mind when he helped organize the celebration. He and his family came to the U.S. in 2008.
“All the gathering, all Afghan families that are here, and especially the families who have come here to Charlotte in the last few months, we welcome them to celebrate our new year all together,” Ziaee said.
There was a lot of joy. Men and children walked around with painted hard-boiled eggs, trying to break each other’s eggs by knocking them together. Women sat together and talked while several men formed a circle dancing.
This is Nilab Rahmani’s fourth year in the U.S. Her husband worked with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and was able to get a special immigrant visa.
“Every year we celebrate," Rahmani said. "We celebrate because we want to be together and celebrate so we don’t feel alone because we’re refugees.”
This year, she celebrated with her sister Sanam by her side. She heard her sister made it out of Afghanistan in August and had made her way to Charlotte. She finally found her at a hotel in January and surprised her.
“I was very excited," Nilab Rahmani said. "I’m very happy she’s here. She’s not in danger anymore. We wish one day my country will be in peace. Nobody be in danger.” .
Had she stayed in Afghanistan, Sanam Rahmani may not have been able to celebrate Nowruz. Just weeks before the holiday, the Taliban canceled official celebrations, deeming them pagan. Rahmani spent the day celebrating, but also thinking of her father and siblings back home.
An interpreter translated her words: “She’s enjoying the celebration. Everyone who’s here is like her family, but, of course, her real family is in her heart, the ones that are not here.”
God willing, she says, she will see them again.
