Dressed in a dark blue polo T-shirt and pressed khakis, Afghanistan’s youngest mayor strode up the ramp at Eppley Airfield to meet some new friends from Iowa.
“Welcome, welcome,” said a group of white-haired Council Bluffs residents. They were old enough to be parents of the 31-year-old mayor, Farhad Niayesh, and his companions, two fellow millennial-aged rising stars in Afghanistan politics.
“Thank you very much,” each said, returning warm smiles, firm handshakes and a shared belief that this moment was a baby step toward something much, much larger and so, so seemingly elusive — world peace.
The group will cement their bond today at a ceremony in Council Bluffs formalizing a friendship between Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, and the Bluffs. The two cities will become “sister cities” as part of a decades-old citizen diplomacy program called Sister Cities International.
People are also reading…
The program pairs up cities from different countries to promote mutual understanding. Its founding principle is simple: It’s better to be friends than strangers.
This was a point made abundantly clear in the hour that I got to spend with Farhad Niayesh, Somaia Ramish and Zalmai Attarpoor.
Farhad became mayor last year in Herat, which at last count had about 430,000 people. Somaia, 29, is one of four women on the 19-member Herat provincial council, which has an advisory role in local government. Zalmai, 33, is from Herat; he now lives in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, and works as a cultural affairs assistant for the U.S. State Department.
The three Afghans arrived in the United States last week, spending time in Washington, D.C. for the annual Sister Cities International conference. Now they were on to the Iowa leg of their journey, which was to include a trip to Des Moines and a Thanksgiving-style dinner.
We sat down in the airport cafeteria, where I was struck right away by their grasp of English. At times, Somaia’s passion and message came too quickly for English, and she shifted to Persian, with Zalmai translating.
We got down to business quickly enough. Impressions of the United States so far? Green, very green. Buildings in D.C. are not so tall. Americans, despite their differences, are “very good, very cooperative, very kind” and “comfortable” with each other, Farhad said.
Did they not see the TV all week? Were they not aware of our current crisis over race and policing and the deaths of both officers and citizens?
Farhad took a long view, placing this boiling moment in America into the larger historical context. “In every society, some people have problems,” he said. “You have over 300 million people. We are hopeful that (most) of the problems have been solved in this country.”
We spent more time talking about Afghanistan and the lengthy U.S. military presence, which began as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After 15 years, did these young leaders want the United States to leave? No, they said, not yet. Has the U.S. involvement been successful, despite continued problems? Yes, they said.
In fact, these three measured time in two eras: Before the United States came in 2001, and after.
Before the invasion, electricity in Herat was spotty. Farhad recalls getting two hours at a time. Now, it’s on mostly 24-7.
Before the invasion, girls quit primary school and women were so stripped of rights that they hardly were known outside their families by their own names. Under Taliban rule, women couldn’t even use public restrooms.
Now look at Somaia. She wears her colorful hajib loosely over dark hair. She’s got a political position, and, as a published poet and founder of a women’s radio station, she has a voice. Plus a Facebook account.
“After 2001, the doors of Afghanistan opened to all the world,” she said.
The Afghans talked about the rise of social media, of education and of a “younger” generation — theirs — that had benefited from all the change.
“If you compared it to the past, you cannot compare,” Zalmai said. “We’re more educated, more talented and more confident. And not only in Herat, also in Afghanistan. We have freedom of speech better than most of our neighbors.”
Farhad echoed him: “You can express your opinion.”
He said his generation is “more educated, talented, enthusiastic. And they have open minds.”
This does not mean things are perfect, Somaia said.
“With all this achievement, there are still problems. We still need the support of the international community,” she said in Persian as Zalmai translated.
They’re getting support, at least, from one Iowan who is the linchpin in this new relationship.
Rick Burns is a retired Army lieutenant colonel from Elk Horn, Iowa, who spent about a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan on three separate military deployments. His takeaway was that these war-torn places, while difficult, had potential and that it took relationships and investment in people to bring about real change. He pushed to establish a Sister Cities friendship between Council Bluffs and a subdistrict of Baghdad, called Karadah. Then he started a nonprofit called Karadah Project International to help fund sustainable projects.
Burns also pushed for this recent Sister Cities partnership between Council Bluffs and Herat. Even though Afghanistan has a long way to go, he said he is inspired by the optimism and energy that this rising political class seems to show.
He said the bridges being built between his corner of western Iowa and Herat and Baghdad are crucial plays in the long game of what he called “citizen diplomacy.”
Council Bluffs has chosen sister cities that don’t make for easy travel. One of the sister cities is Tobolsk — in Siberia.
“We don’t pick easy places,” said Linda Steensland, who is on the board of the Bluffs’ Sister Cities chapter. “You don’t want to do anything easy. You want to do something that will advance relationships and help the world for the future.”
That’s how the Afghan visitors saw it, too.
They need U.S. support, Farhad said. But Americans also need to see that their investment in Afghanistan is bearing fruit. He said he saw natural ties in agriculture. Herat is a major producer of saffron, a sweet, hay-like herb. He sees ties in higher education, with Herat University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Afghanistan Studies. Plus, he said, there is so much to be gained by sitting across the table from one another.
“Right now, you see me,” Farhad said. “I see you. We did not have a good contact with each other (before). People didn’t know or understand about each other. There is a problem with the media broadcasting the bad news. All the dark spots are showing to the people of the world. We have many good things. And one of our goals is to be friends with the people of different cities, to understand each other.”
It was a timely message.
During a violent, angst-ridden summer here in the United States, Farhad’s words struck me as particularly relevant.
You don’t have to live in different cities across the globe for the Sister Cities ideal to ring true.
Friendship breeds good will. Mutual understanding reduces conflict.
And simply meeting someone and listening to their story is a reminder that we share more in common than we may think.
“We want to bring peace to the world,” Zalmai said. “It’s possible. All sides should know each other.”
Contact the writer: erin.grace@owh.com, 402-444-1136, twitter.com/ErinGraceOWH