Nazanin, 20, is thankful for her mom’s courage and determination, which allowed her to leave behind Taliban threats in her native Afghanistan, when she was eight, and find a new home today in the Biggest Little City.
Her father’s side of the family was unsure, but her mother, who initially took five children to Turkey was resolute. That stop though, on her perilous journey away from Afghanistan, didn’t always feel welcoming.
“They don’t like students from different countries [there],” Nazanin said of her memories of starting over in Turkey. “It was hard for me, I changed my high school three times.”
Freedom of movement also wasn’t so easy. “If I’m going somewhere I needed to get permission from the police,” she explained of difficulties in taking in country trips there.
So despite being freer, Nazanin’s family sought even further freedom. “We came here for my school and for my life too,” she said when asked why they ultimately left Turkey.
Upon arriving in Reno in 2022, Nazanin, who also goes by Naz, started to get a taste of the freedom she was looking for.
“Here is better,” she said, including on how she feels about general acceptance of immigrants and refugees. She mentions clothing being more comfortable. However, her adaptation hasn’t been without challenges.
Naz had no English speaking skills coming into the United States, and had to figure out how to get situated for her senior year of high school. An organization that played a pivotal role in this transition was the Northern Nevada International Center. “They helped me a lot with school and language [barriers],” Naz said.
Naz also spoke of a local teacher who took care in meeting her where she was. “She tried helping me with language, she gave me homework, she gave me children’s books… that way I started to learn it,” she said.
Through these combined efforts and the help of a close friend, Naz overcame language difficulties, graduated high school, and began attending and working at Truckee Meadows Community College.
At TMCC, she studied social work, while also working at their child care center. Later she also worked in food service at the Atlantis casino.
“After school I’d work three to 11 [p.m.] every day. It was hard," she said, but worth it. “Everything I’ve tried to do myself. In my life I didn’t get much help.”
After finishing her first year at TMCC, Naz is shifting gears to pursue a new opportunity with the Sierra Nevada Job Corps. There she will learn how to be a medical assistant, and sees herself bringing added value with her language skills.
“I can translate different languages, if they need it,” Naz said, sharing that she speaks Turkish, Turkmen, Farsi, English and is also learning Spanish.
Outside of work and school, Naz enjoys being outside, ideally with her preferred mode of transportation- rollerblading. “I like to rollerblade everywhere I go. I’ve been using them for 10 years,” she said. She also shared that she enjoys singing, which she can do in six languages, more than she can speak.
As for advice for others being resettled, Naz recommends “to see what the specific type [dialect] of the language is spoken there [where they’re going],” and to “start learning it before too, if possible.”
Naz says she has found a home in Reno. “We are in a better position right now,” she said of her family.
As for the future, she sees herself being able to pay it back to her mom, now that she’s in a position to be successful. “I will try to do everything for her, because I know she did it for me. I want to do the same thing for my mom.”
Our Town Reno reporting by Dan Mariani
