ONE TO READ:

FRESHTA TORI JAN

by Melissa Fales
photo by Tim VanBeek

As members of Afghanistan’s minority Hazara population, author Freshta Tori Jan and her family were prime targets for the Taliban. One of Jan’s earliest memories is of Taliban helicopters flying over their home, shooting. “My mom and I were on opposite ends of the yard,” she recalls. “She told me to hide in the bathroom (which was outside) and she hid in the dog’s house in the other corner of the yard with the washing metal bowl over her head.” Now attending college in the US, Jan has written Courage: My Story of Persecution. Her book is the third in the I, Witness series, a product of the writing program at the International Congress of Youth Voices. Courage: My Story of Persecution will be released on January 11, 2022.     

Jan’s childhood was filled with unimaginable suffering. “It was hard when my literal physical features, gender, ethnicity, and social class would put me in danger all the time,” she says. “I loved playing outdoors until it was banned for my age and gender at around age seven.” Her family raised sheep, which Jan would shepherd “throughout the Kabul hills, trying to carefully navigate through the numerous landmines left behind from the Russian and Taliban wars.”

While she enjoyed learning, Jan was often physically abused at school by teachers and classmates alike because her family was Hazara and poor. “I will never forget the day I wanted to play danda-kelak with the boys in my neighborhood, and how they broke the left side of my jaw for being stubborn and wanting to play instead of being inside the house and washing dishes and all other tasks that Afghan women are tasked with,” Jan says. 

Jan’s father’s work with humanitarian organizations in remote parts of Afghanistan often placed him in harm’s way. He was captured and beaten by the Taliban many times while Jan was growing up. “The brutality and torture left him half-dead and paralyzed,” she recalls. “I remember my mother and I having to feed him, bathe him, and help him move around the house, and I was still a kid.” As a result, Jan’s mother took on the role of both parents. She worked menial jobs and tended to the family’s garden to provide food. “She taught me to be resourceful and that there is always a solution to any challenge,” says Jan. 

As bad as things were for Jan and her family, they always tried to focus on the positive and share whatever meager scraps they could scrounge for food. “I remember the times my family, who really had nothing to eat, would bring the disabled kids or the abused girls in the community into our home and feed them,” she says. “I mean, we hardly had anything to eat ourselves, at times we ate moldy bread with snow, but this taught me to grow a passion for the power of social relationships, of community, of joy and humanness—what brought us all together despite our differences and backgrounds, our disabilities and ethnic features.” 

When Jan was nearly 15, she fled Afghanistan. “The Taliban had just shut down my school halfway through grade eight and I began to apply to boarding schools across the world,” she says. “My family was receiving a lot of threats and murder attempts during the same time. We sold everything we owned and fled to India, where we knew no one, nor the language. We lived there in similar circumstances for a couple months.”

“In order to make any change, we need young people who are informed, who are passionate, and can make policyholders and communities move when horrific humanitarian crimes are affecting our neighbors and communities, near and far. Silence does not bring change. Silence does not lead to revolution.”

After Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, Jan saw that the International Congress of Young Voices was gathering social activists there to help residents recover from the devastation. “Even though I did not have the resources financially, ICYV allowed me on board and changed my life forever,” she says. “Fast forward a couple years later, they asked me to collaborate on this writing project through the Hawkins Project. 

Jan says writing Courage: My Story of Persecution was cathartic. “It allowed me to share my story of growing up being a part of groups that felt like belonging was a crime and that no matter your deed or advocacy, your punishment and reward were both death,” she says. “I wrote this book with many tears, with many memories that I had blocked due to a lot of trauma, but with the hope of continuing the fight for many like my father, my friends who were killed, and the generations of children born into a dark society, a graveyard, that they have to believe is a playground.” 

One of Jan’s goals with Courage: My Story of Persecution is to help break societal stereotypes about young people. She says she wants readers to know “that they can be leaders and that they have powerful voices that need to be involved in revolutions and making societal changes.” Another is to raise awareness of the ongoing Hazara genocide. “I hope this makes leaders and communities realize that we need to step in and prevent another Rwandan Genocide, another Holocaust, another historical crisis that could have been prevented if selfish motives were crushed and the wrongful leaders were held accountable,” she says. 

Jan, an enterprising entrepreneur who plans to attend law school, says she will continue to reach out to young people because she believes that their involvement is crucial to progress. “Leadership has no age,” she says. “In order to make any change, we need young people who are informed, who are passionate, and can make policyholders and communities move when horrific humanitarian crimes are affecting our neighbors and communities, near and far. Silence does not bring change. Silence does not lead to revolution.” 

Jan invites anyone interested in helping the Afghan community or in sponsoring an Afghan family to reach out to her at Freshta Speaks on Facebook or @frehstatorijan on Instagram.