Nansen Magazine - Issue 3 - Muzhgan Samarqandi

Meet Muzhgan Samarqandi, an Afghanistani broadcaster and mother who is making Aotearoa New Zealand home with her young family.

She tells her own story in Issue 03, one where Kiwis tell her to shut up and be grateful or go home, of being stereotyped as a mail-order bride, and of the connection she has found with Māori people, a relationship that reaches outside Western notions of who is welcome to live where.

Muzhgan recalls her family’s migration history, one that began 800 years ago in the time of Ghengis Khan. Her writing is exacting and compassionate, and there’s plenty of joy, too.