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All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘Istanbul’

Turkish kindness kills the imaginary thief

Jan 06, 2017 | Fariba | [post_comments" zero="0" one="1" more="%1$s"]

ISTANBUL – The first heavy snow glistens in the darkness of the city I’ve fallen in love with in the last year. We are six, three children and three adults, who pile in the station wagon to head home. Umesh, our Indian friend, neighbor and fellow journalist, clears the snow from the windows and turns on the engine. The car …

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Bathhouses and chai from Herat to Istanbul

Jan 18, 2016 | Fariba | [post_comments" zero="0" one="1" more="%1$s"]

Four days after a suicide bomber killed 10 tourists and injured 15 at the most popular tourist destination of Istanbul, I took a good friend visiting from Kabul and my two girls to Sultanahmet Square for a Turkish bath and then dinner with chai. Tourism is suffering because foreigners are afraid to visit Turkey. Tours have been canceled and vendors …

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How a child learns to accept differences

Dec 15, 2015 | Fariba | [post_comments" zero="0" one="1" more="%1$s"]

My 4-year-old sat on my lap as I massaged my broken leg in a cast on the Istanbul Metro train. In front of us sat a woman wearing a black niqab with only slits of her eyes showing. My daughter could not see her expressions. She wasn’t used to the garb. She stared at her with childlike innocence but there …

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Heading East Again

Mar 25, 2014 | Fariba | [post_comments" zero="0" one="1" more="%1$s"]

It’s safe, sunny and quiet. My girls go to a decent school. We own a home, a business and my extended family lives nearby. The largest Afghan community in the U.S. is here – Little Kabul in the San Francisco Bay Area. This multicultural, thriving hub buzzing with new technology is where I should belong. And I do belong. But …

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