VOL. 119, Issue 3 - Sept. 23, 2021

06
THURSDAY
SEPT. 23,
2021
NEWS
AFGHANS IN USF COMMUNITY ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE
MEGAN ROBERTSON
Staff Writer
When the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan Aug. 15, Afghans
around the world felt the shock of the news. This impact stretched over 7,000
miles and was felt right here on the Hilltop.
While born and raised in California, freshman Adah Hakimi’s family still
lives in Afghanistan. “We’re on the phone with them every single night,” Hakimi
said. “And every night they keep saying the same thing, ‘Please get us out of
here.’”
The Taliban’s swift takeover of the country shocked and frightened Hakimi’s
family. “When you see that flag being taken down and replaced, you just feel
numb,” Hakimi said. “For not just my family but for Afghans everywhere, it was
a day of hopelessness.”
The political turmoil quickly initiated an international humanitarian crisis.
One of the largest predicaments for the United States government was to evacuate
nearly 300,000 Afghans who were associated with the American mission. The
U.S. airlifted about 130,000 Afghans to eight processing centers in the U.S., one
of the largest mass evacuations in history. Beginning Oct. 1, the Biden Administration
will raise the refugee admissions cap to 125,000, with 35,000 coming
from near East and South Asia. However these undertakings are only the beginning
of a larger crisis as so few of the 300,000 are able to achieve refugee status.
For those who escaped, “you don’t know where you’re going,” said Hakimi.
“You could be going to Pakistan, Iran - you could be going anywhere.” Once
placed in a country, refugees have no notion of whether they will even be accepted
or how long they will be detained.
USF linguistics professor Dr. Sedique Popal also felt connected to this crisis.
During the Soviet-Afghan War, Popal said he was one of 5 million Afghan refugees
who fled the country. “I didn’t come here looking for a job,” he said. “I was a
professor in Afghanistan; I was very happy. I left the country because of [them].”
Like Hakimi, Dr. Popal has family members in Afghanistan still struggling
to leave. His nieces, now 21, “tried to make it to the Kabul Airport six times,” said
Popal, “and they were beaten by the Taliban six times.”
Under the Taliban’s rule, the lives of women have been threatened. Hakimi’s
college-aged female cousins can no longer attend school. Suddenly, “everything
has just stopped. They cannot go back,” she said.
Unmarried women between the ages of 12 and 40 are being forced into
arranged marriages with Taliban fighters, Popal said. For Popal’s sister-in-law and
nieces, this is a great concern. “They are so scared,” he said. “There’s no tomorrow
for Afghanistan if the Taliban are in power.”
Both Popal and Hakimi have been active in their local communities in response
to the situation. Popal, president of the Noor Islamic Cultural and Community
Center in Concord, Calif., started a relief effort for thousands of Afghan
refugees. His organization creates care packages, including clothing, toiletry, and
houseware items, to distribute to Afghans resettling in the Bay Area. Since July
30, over 200 Afghan refugees have relocated to the Bay Area and hundreds more
are expected to arrive in the coming months.
Over the past month, Popal’s team has received immense support. “People
were so generous,” he said. “We don’t have room for any more [physical]
donations.” However, he said, monetary donations are welcome via the center’s
website.
Hakimi also began taking donations that are rerouted to her aunt’s fiance,
and his efforts to aid displaced Afghan families, providing them with food, tents,
clothing, and other items.
In addition to financial support, Hakimi participated in various political
rallies, such as protests organized by the United Afghan Association. “Lately, I’m
trying to go to every single protest that I can and get as many people to go,”
Hakimi said. She encourages the USF community to march with her and “raise
awareness for the people that are struggling and dying” in Afghanistan.
Popal agreed that civic engagement is an essential tool to help Afghan refugees.
“The biggest help that students could give is to voice concern to politicians
to find a way to get these people out.”
Both Dr. Popal and Hakimi would like to see more student engagement and
discourse on campus regarding the crisis in Afghanistan. USF’s Middle East and
North Africa club recently held a fundraiser outside the John Lo Schiavo, S.J.
Center for Science and Innovation.
Popal and Hakimi strongly encourage the USF community to educate themselves
on the situation, to donate to relief efforts if possible, and to advocate on
behalf of the Afghan people. “We need more than just the Afghan community to
be talking about this,” Hakimi said.
If you would like to contact your U.S. representatives about the situation in
Afghanistan, text the word “CRISIS” to 52886. Message and data rates may apply.
A protest organized by the United Afghan Association. PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAH HAKIMI
Dr. Popal and the Noor Islamic Cultural Center have been making care packages to welcome
resettled Afghan refugees in the Bay Area. PHOTO COURTESY OF SEDIQUE POPAL
CALLIE FAUSEY
Staff Writer
MCCARTHY CENTER MURAL ILLUSTRATES
PATHWAYS TO A BETTER FUTURE
The Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good
(LTMC) unveiled a new mural this week that encapsulates the center’s mission
and values by bringing together historical imagery and symbolism alluding to
a brighter future. Although USF and its students are not unfamiliar with some
of the murals decorating the city, the piece will be the first large-scale mural
project seen at USF in several years.
The design committee, which was made up of LTMC students, community
partners, staff and faculty, prompted the question: “Imagine waking up
tomorrow to a re-imagined, just world. What does it look like?”
For senior Priana Aquino, a public service and community engagement
minor through one of the center’s programs, being on the committee was exciting.
“Not only do I enjoy talking about art, I was able to be around a group of
people from USF for the first time in a year and a half,” Aquino said. “The idea
of community, specifically bridging community, was important to me. As we
come into a new kind of pandemic life, I wanted to reflect in our mural how
our concepts of community will remain the same no matter how isolated we
are from each other.”
LTMC partnered with Precita Eyes Muralists, a local mural arts organization
and artist collective, to assist in bringing their ideas to life. After brainstorming
various themes and multiple individual design drafts, the process revealed
a combined “vision of different pathways all leading to a path toward
equity that we are all traveling,” according to the center’s website.
Derick Brown, the senior director of the McCarthy Center, said the mural
captures the LTMC’s primary goal of preparing students for a successful life in
public service and the center’s emphasis on connecting USF to the broader San
Francisco community.
“We’re the heartbeat of USF,” said Brown. “When I look at the mural, it
really showcases the center, and what we stand for, what we believe in, some of
the work that we have been doing but then also what we hope for the future.”
The mural’s narrative according to the LTMC’s Director of External Relations,
Leslie Lombre, begins with “Native Ohlone patterns that point up to
Muralist Francisco Franco repaints the sky around the sun to highlight its rays. PHOTO BY CALLIE FAUSEY / SAN FRANCISCO FOGHORN
the night sky and the Golden Gate Bridge with an ominous glow of the moon
upon the fog, this representing the unknown or the lack of clarity that we all
have when beginning a journey.”
The viewer’s eye follows this journey from the foggy night sky to the Civic
Center lit up in a rainbow. Pouring out of the building is a peace parade made
up of a “rainbow of people” from all walks of life advocating for revolutionary
love.
The parade was one of muralist Francisco Franco’s favorite components of
the overall design. Franco described his work with Precita Eyes and LTMC as a
collaborative effort. His job was to take inspiration from the committee's ideas,
stitch them into a cohesive story, and make it visual.
“Creating a composition with all their ideas was the hard part,” said Franco
while taking a break from repainting the mural’s sun on Sept. 14. Despite
the challenges that arose, Franco ended up with a final design that he called
“Bay-Area-esque.” Franco said that the Bay Area tradition of making a difference
through grassroots efforts and community education, as depicted in the
mural, relates to how he got to where he is now as a self-taught artist.
The mural’s parade passes by a “tree of wisdom” filled with books and
reaching out in all directions. The tree also features a Black Panther to represent
“the Bay Area’s history of Social Justice movements and its fierce and powerful
influence for change.”
“There's gonna be a lot of roots coming down from the tree, to represent
native roots, and also people who come here and set roots down to make the
Bay a more beautiful and just community,” said Franco.
One of the last additions to the piece were jazz players who represent
the Fillmore’s musical history and invite the crowd to “go off the beaten path,
which is necessary to create change and in discovering new frontiers.” Many
pathways are featured in the mural, all leading into the light of a shining sun.
The sunrays represent enlightenment and success.
“Sometimes you have to go out there to stand for what you believe in, and
that's depicted in the mural, but it's also what we're teaching the students day
in and day out,” said Brown.
Aquino also said that the mural represents everything the McCarthy Center
stands for. “Everything we work for is done for those who came before us
and those who will come after us, fortifying a legacy of love that will pave the
pathway to equality and prosperity.”
07
SCENE