Tahmina Amiri began teaching herself English by watching American cartoons in her native Kabul, Afghanistan, where the national language is Persian, also referred to as Dari in Afghanistan and Farsi in Iran.
“My favorite cartoon was Tom and Jerry,” she says, and it’s one she still likes watching today.
Tahima left everything behind, including her six siblings (three brothers and three sisters), parents and grandfather, to relocate to the U.S.
While attending high school, Tahmina worked as a part-time administrative assistant for an American international aid agency, where she translated documents from Persian to English and vise versa, worked on timesheets and reports and filed papers, among other tasks. When she graduated in 2012, she began working a full-time position there; a job she loved.
Working there, however, became increasingly dangerous and made her a target for the Taliban. After a bombing at the office she worked at, which killed five of her colleagues, her fear hit an all-time high. When she learned about a special immigration visa offered to U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) employees, she applied for it. Tahmina painstakingly filled out the 20-page application, using a dictionary she found to look up the English words she didn’t understand.
Three years after applying for the visa, she found out she had been accepted and had one month to move out of her country and was only allowed to notify her family that she was leaving her native land. Frightened of the Taliban and retaliation, she decided to make the move.
“If there was peace and I could be myself, I would have never left my country,” said Tahmina. “I am home sick. I thought I would never miss my country, but I even miss the garbage,” she confesses.
While working at the USAID, she met a colleague who was from the Sarasota area. When she had to provide the U.S. embassy with an address, she asked him if she could give his. He agreed, and when she landed in the U.S., she lived with him and his family for four months.
During that time, Tahmina started attending classes at the English Literacy Council where she met the woman she calls her “U.S. mom” - Alison Levine Bishop, the former owner of Living Walls, a source for modern and contemporary furniture, and a consultant now. Tahmina lives in Sarasota with Alison and her husband, who have a grown son.
Tahmina works part time as a cashier at Publix (celebrating her one-year anniversary soon) where she had a chance meeting that led to a $1,000 scholarship.
The young woman assisted local philanthropist and Women’s Resource Center of Sarasota County (WRCSC) board member, Betty Schoenbaum, with her groceries. The two started talking about Tahmina’s school ambitions, and Betty referred her to the WRCSC and its scholarship program.
She applied for the scholarship and personally received a check along with a heart-to-heart hug from her donor - the very woman who told her about the scholarship program and the WRCSC in the first place. During the May ceremony, where 42 other women received scholarships, Tahmina graciously and profusely thanked Betty and the nonprofit.
“It’s so awesome how the Women’s Resource Center of Sarasota County helps women on their path,” says Tahmina. “I want to help women like that in the future. If I see a woman who really needs help, I will refer them here. It’s a really good place.”
On June 26, the ambitious 24-year-old will take a college placement test, and starting this August, Tahmina will continue her English education with additional courses at State College of Florida’s Bradenton campus. She hopes to begin college courses toward a law degree soon after that. Ultimately, she would like to become an attorney to help fight for women’s rights.
She’s already doing that now as a volunteer at the Gulf Coast Chapter of UN Women. She even helped raise money to stop violence against women and children by sending the website link to people she knew.
Working part time while attending school is tough, says Tahmina, who is trying to balance the two.
Tahmina has been in the U.S. a year now. Since that time, she has learned how to ride a bike, earned her driver’s license (she credits YouTube videos for helping her learn) and owns a car, which used to be owned by Alison’s mother. She loves the beach, swimming and history. To her, Florida is beautiful and the people are nice.
“We are not that different,” says Tahmina, referring to Americans and her Afghanistan heritage. “We have the same heart and people help each other. It’s just a different language and a different culture.”
One day, she hopes to live in Washington, D.C. In the meantime, however, she’s looking for additional scholarships to help with her expensive tuition fees and books.
