Meet Nelofar from Afghanistan – New Neighbor and Ultramarathon Runner

Inside Nelofar and her family’s cottage in Rockland County, life seems calm. Tomato sauce for Aushak, a traditional Afghan dish, simmers on the stove. Mujtaba, 19, walks around the house with his headphones on full blast, and his sister Nelofar, 26, takes her shoes off after a long commute from NYC, where she works on gender rights for UNESCO. Across the street are 11 members of their extended family, all reunited and resettled by Hearts & Homes for Refugees over this past year. 

“Me and my family, we were lucky that we found Hearts & Homes for support,” said Nelofar in an interview with Hearts & Homes. “Other refugees are not the same. I talk with my friends… they don't have Hearts & Homes and all these people around us to support us. We were lucky.”

But for Nelofar’s family and their relatives, getting here was no easy task. On the day the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, Nelofar, part of the first Afghan team to run an ultramarathon, and an outspoken gender-equality activist, immediately knew she was in danger. 

After successfully completing the ultramarathon in 2015, which took place across a 250 kilometer stretch of the Gobi Desert in China, Nelofar decided to organize the first ever all-girls marathon in Afghanistan. 

Her activism made her a target of the Taliban. The local police provided her with personal protection, but eventually she dropped it, deciding that she would rather live a free life than be restricted by police protection. 

When the Taliban took over in 2021, a free life was no longer an option. 

As a program officer for two U.S.-funded advocacy groups, Skateistan and Free to Run, Nelofar was eligible for a U.S. Army flight out of Afghanistan. That would have meant leaving her family behind.

Nelofar (right) at an event hosted by Skateistan, a non-profit that combines skateboarding with creative arts-based education to empower girls in Afghanistan.

Instead, Nelofar met her sister at an airport near their hometown with just her purse in hand. Together they flew to Kabul to meet their parents and two brothers. The family hid in Kabul for two weeks, awaiting a flight out of Afghanistan alongside thousands of others looking to do the same. 

With the help of Nelofar’s two friends Gabriela Ramos and Carolina, the family eventually made it to Mexico on a special six-month visa for Afghan refugees. While in Mexico, Nelofar tried everything she could to get her family to Canada. But with money and time running out, they accepted entrance into the U.S. via humanitarian parole, a two-year temporary immigration status.  

Across the border and in a shelter in San Diego, Nelofar was still set on getting her family to Canada. This changed when a friend told her about Hearts & Homes for Refugees. 

“I told [my friends] that I'm not coming to Canada because these people at Hearts & Homes trust us and these people worked hard, spent money, and found us a house,” Nelofar explained. “All of them did it for humanity and out of the kindness of their own hearts. So we decided to go to New York, and stay there.”

Resettling with the help of an extensive network of Hearts & Homes volunteers, Nelofar immediately started planning the evacuation of her extended family of 13 still in Afghanistan. 

As Nelofar guided her extended family through Mexico and across the border, Hearts & Homes gathered a volunteer team to prepare for their arrival. Anticipating 13 family members meant quickly lining up housing and coordinating the scaffolding to meet the needs of the new arrivals. 

It was the largest resettlement coordinated by Hearts & Homes in seven years. 

Now, with 17 family members all together in New York, Nelofar’s mission to reunite her family is still not over. When crossing the southern border in March, Nelofar’s brother Ahmad and brother-in-law Mureed, were detained by border patrol. The refugees have been in an ICE detention center in San Diego for three months, as lawyers working to secure their freedom battle an extremely backlogged immigration system.

Last week, desperate from the interminable wait, and furious at their detainment, Ahmad and Mureed took matters into their own hands and embarked on a four-day hunger strike. In response, ICE officers provided more information on their case, and the refugees have since ended the strike. 

The family is currently working with immigration lawyers and Hearts & Homes for Refugees is ready to provide resettlement assistance.

While the family awaits the release of Ahmad and Mureed, they remain focused on building a new life in New York. Just six months into their resettlement with Hearts & Homes, Nelofar’s family is financially independent. They cherish the peace they have found in their new neighborhood.

“I like the freedom here,” said Nelofar. “When I run in the streets here, people will not watch me and say, ‘what is she doing running here?’ It makes me feel safe and happy. It’s wonderful.”