Zarghoona Jalalzoy and Sam Berkrot
Recorded
July 12, 2024
32:36 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
mba000379
Description
Sam Berkrot (27) interviews conversation partner Zarghoona Jalalzoy (45) about her career, family, and journey from Afghanistan to Vermont as a refugee.Subject Log / Time Code
Zarghoona Jalalzoy (ZJ) talks about her education and multifaceted career in various sectors of industry in Afghanistan.
ZJ remembers leaving Afghanistan when the Taliban took power. Today she works for the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) as a case manager.
ZJ talks about the challenges of leaving Afghanistan, moving to Turkey, and eventually making her way to Vermont. She shares that her children still live in Turkey since they were not granted permission to come to the US with ZJ.
ZJ talks about the hardships she experienced in Turkey like learning Turkish and finding work.
ZJ describes how she left Afghanistan only carrying her legal documents and certificates proving her educational background.
ZJ talks about how it feels to live in Vermont with freedoms that do not exist in Afghanistan for women.
ZJ talks about the frustration she feels that her children could not come with her to the US.
ZJ talks about what it is like to work as a case worker with the ECDC, meeting refugees from all over the world and giving them cultural orientations.
ZJ talks about the various places from which she sees refugees coming from.
ZJ discusses what has surprised her the most about the United States.
ZJ talks about the four other languages she speaks and the cultural similarities she sees between all people.
ZJ talks about her hopes for the future and how the career challenges back in Afghanistan compare to the US.
Participants
- Zarghoona Jalalzoy
- Sam Berkrot