You mentioned you never missed
an episode of the show. Who do you
normally watch it with?
I either watch it with a friend, by
myself or with my dogs. I have Pom-
eranians, so probably my dogs some
of the time (laughs).
You were born in Kabul, Afghani-
stan, but at a young age, you and
your family were forced to flee the
country and became war refugees in
Moscow. How much of your child-
hood has influenced your work as
an actor?
Tremendously! When I auditioned
for Dr. Asmaan, I walked out of the
audition room, and I was like this
really hit home for me like a soft
spot because she is such a power-
ful female a woman who fights tooth
and nail for other people. She wakes
up in the morning and decides to-
day she is going to save lives while
risking her own. In Afghanistan, the
women under the Al Qaeda and the
Taliban women, they are not sup-
posed to have professions or leave
their house without their husband.
That is why so many women are just
sitting at home, so for my charac-
ter, she makes a choice every day
when she wakes up, and she decides
she’s a doctor. She also has a baby.
But decides to go to work and save
lives to help others knowing at any
moment, she and her child can be
slaughtered.
I watched my mother, grandmoth-
er and aunts flee their country and
leave everything behind and only
take a bag and then fight their way
in other countries. Being arrest-
ed, starting over, moving from one
country to another and having to ad-
just and speak the language. There’s
a racial barrier when you are middle
eastern, and you are living in Russia.
You are not always accepted and un-
fortunately, that was the case for my
family and me. We had to battle it all.
As a young child, I saw my mother
get arrested for no reason, and the
16 | BSM MAGAZINE | APRIL 2020
cop drag her in front of me. These
are the vivid things you remem-
ber as kids and as dark as it is, and
how crazy it is, let’s face it, we don’t
live in a world that is just peaceful.
Even in the U.S., you turn on the
news. And all the stuff that’s hap-
pening with the shootings and the
cops. Pulling people over and them
dying, that is something that reso-
nates with me. We protect our kids
as much as we can, right? The way I
look at it is my parents did their best
to protect me and make sure I did
not die in Afghanistan. I choose to
take all of it into my work in a posi-
tive way. And make a difference for
someone that is watching This Is Us.
For most people, there is a stereo-
typical thought when they think of
Afghanistan. There are women with
professions in Afghanistan; doctors,
lawyers, and engineers. I think ev-
erything I have been through and
even the languages I speak, every-
thing that I have learned impacts my
work, especially my specific char-
acter. I understand her. Maybe not
one-hundred percent because that
would be ignorant to say because I
am sitting here talking to you from
California. There are people in Af-
ghanistan who live in unimaginable
circumstances, so I can’t relate to it
right now because I’m sitting here
speaking to you from my apartment
in California, but I have seen it, you
know.
You are a graduate of the world-
renowned Stella Adler Academy of
Acting. Do you at any point want
to be both in front and behind the
camera to tell your story or stories
of other women with similar experi-
ences as yourself?
Absolutely, I love the process of film-
making. I remember the first film I
did. I was so intrigued by the pro-
ducers and directors. I loved watch-
ing them because it’s like they had
eyes in the back of their heads and
see everything no one else sees, and
that is intriguing. I love storytelling.
I also write a little bit, so I have a lot