Exiled Afghan Family Take on Their Destiny

Dec. 19, 2001 -- More than 20 years after he left Afghanistan, walking for three days and nights across the mountains into Pakistan, Zahir Karzai is preparing to make the return trip to his homeland.

But unlike that fateful journey in June 1980 when the young Karzai fled after hearing about a massacre in his native village of Karz in southern Afghanistan in which more than 30 family members were killed, the journey back is for the right reasons.

A first cousin of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's newly appointed interim leader and a scion of a prominent Afghan family, Karzai, 41, plans to visit his newly liberated but ravaged country in January for a few weeks to "see the situation for myself and just check it out."

In March 1982, when he arrived in the United States as an Afghan refugee from Pakistan, he believed it was a temporary move.

"I thought I would be here two, three months and now it's 20 years," he laughs. A car dealer in Silver Springs, Md., with three children, a car and a comfortable suburban home, Karzai says he simply wants to see his old stomping ground after all these years.

And though he's thrilled, he's also prepared for the worst. "I'm so excited. It's my first time back since I left but I don't know what I feel when I get there. Mostly, I feel sorry for the people there. I have my life here, but they have gone through so much. I just want to help to rebuild our country. We have to serve the people of Afghanistan."

Days in Exile

Service is a word often heard among the Karzais, a prominent Pashtun family that has boasted politicians, advisers and freedom fighters among their ranks for more than a century.

His uncle, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was a senator towards the end of the reign of King Zahir Shah (1933-1973) and was a respected figure in the Afghan resistance movement during the Soviet occupation.

Abdul's son, Hamid, took over the leadership of his Populzai tribe when his father was assassinated in the Pakistani border city of Quetta in 1999. The family suspects the assassination was the work of operatives close to the Taliban, but the case remains a mystery.

Popular legend has it that the Taliban actually feared the Karzais since the rural hard-line Islamic students of Pakistani religious schools, or madrassas, lacked the lineage and the education of the Karzais.

Nevertheless, when Abdul was assassinated, the Taliban granted the family permission to bury their patriarch at the family burial ground in Karz, about two miles south of Kandahar. The event was attended by thousands of Afghans.

A week later, Hamid was nominated leader of the Populzai tribe by a council of elders and scholars, a mantle his family says he has borne with the responsibility befitting a leader of their tribe.

The Activist and the Intellectual

Sitting in his office in Silver Springs, Md., from where he runs his telecommunications business, Zahir's elder brother Hashim Karzai still remembers the day last July when he tried to convince his cousin Hamid to settle in the United States. It was a year after Abdul's assassination and the then-Pakistan-based Hamid was on a trip to visit the many Karzais now settled in the United States.

"I was very afraid for his life," recalls Hashim. "I told him, 'They killed your father, your wife is a doctor, you can have a good life here. What are you doing there?' I remember he paused for a few seconds. Then he looked straight at me and said in our native [Pashtu] language, 'Shame as it is there, do you want me to leave it to them [the Taliban]?'"

For Hashim, his cousin's resolution came as no surprise. More than 20 years after the two cousins left Afghanistan to study in India, Hashim remembers their politically charged student days in northern India after the Soviet occupation.

Hashim was studying economics at a university in Chandigarh, India and Hamid was a political science student in Simla, the former summer capital of the British Raj.

"Hamid was always an intellectual," recalls Hashim. "He was always calm and peaceful and willing to listen to all sides. I was the hyper one."

Taking Things Slowly

But 20 years of building a life in the United States and finally living the American dream has turned the once-fiery student into a man of measure.

"I would love to go back to Afghanistan. Not to take on a government position or for power, but only if I can help rebuild my country. I would love to work on a specific project to help build Afghanistan's telecommunications systems, for instance. But I have to think about my mortgage, my three children, their school, their schedules ... it's difficult to just cut it off because we are now established here."

But despite his family responsibilities and the still precarious security situation in Afghanistan, Hashim still maintains that one day he will go home, if not forever, then at least for a brief visit.

A Tryst With Destiny

His cousin, the Baltimore-based Qayum, has already packed his bags and is on the way to the Afghan capital of Kabul. On Tuesday, Qayum accompanied his brother Hamid while the future interim prime minister of Afghanistan met with former king Zahir Shah in Italy, where the aging ex-monarch has lived since his exile in 1973.

After more than three decades of foreign occupation, civil war and the shredding of Afghan civil society as they remember it, the meeting in Rome was an emotional one.

The elder statesman handed the new leader of Afghanistan a copy of the holy Koran while almost choking with emotion. Hamid thanked Shah and kissed the frail ex-monarch's hand.

On Saturday, Hamid will take office as the head of a six-month interim government at a ceremony in Kabul and in March, the 87-year-old Shah is expected to make a trip to Afghanistan to open a loya jirga, or grand tribal council, to map out a future for Afghanistan.

For the Karzais, the meeting in Rome was a glimmer of the good old days. The Karzai and Shah families are distantly related and have intermarried for decades.

Little wonder it came as no surprise to the brothers Hashim and Zahir to see their cousin take up the reins of the future of their long-missed homeland.

"Frankly, this didn't come as a surprise," says Hashim, more than 20 years after the cousins swore they would give up their lives to rid Afghanistan of foreign interference, an oath made when they were idealistic international students in India. "I was expecting something big from him and I know he won't let us down. I still remember how he once told me, 'You know, all we need is to eliminate those subtitles of ethnicity and clan and just stick to the title — Afghan.' I can't remember when exactly he said this, but it's crucial to this day."

And though his cousin Hamid will no doubt attempt to shake off the identity shackles of ethnicity and clan in Afghan society, the Karzais admit they're ready to take on the family destiny of service.