Archives West Finding Aid

This oral history interview with Nawid G. Khan was conducted by Sankar Raman on July 11, 2017. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In this interview, Khan discusses the process of immigrating to the United States from Afghanistan in 2016. He talks about his family and early life in Afghanistan, including the death of four of his brothers from cancer, growing up in an area surrounded by the Taliban, and the experience of growing up in a war zone. He speaks about his education in Afghanistan and experiencing bullying. Khan also spends some time showing photographs to Raman. He talks about gender roles in Afghanistan. He describes witnessing two Taliban bombings, one at his school in 2012, and another that killed a friend in front of him in 2014. He talks about immigrating to the United States to continue his education. He discusses his experiences attending Benson High School in Portland, Oregon, including learning English as a second language, and his plans for the future. Khan closes the interview by talking about politics and human rights in Afghanistan, his plans for college, meeting the Afghan ambassador to the United States, and his thoughts on the political situation in the United States in 2017.