Courier to profile Hazlet business owner helping overseas

The Courier is conducting an interview, on Thursday, Sept. 27 with a Hazlet business owner who emigrated from Afghanistan 26 years ago. After fleeing Soviet oppression in her homeland, the business owner struggled to live the American dream and finally
opened her own store after starting from the bottom. Through hard work and diligence, the woman became a success story not only at work but with her family, raising two sons with her husband (both of whom went on to graduate college here in New Jersey). Recently, she went back to her former homeland, and is collecting charitable donations to send back to Afghanistan to help rebuild a village there in the wake of the U.S. liberation of that country.

She will be revealing details of her recent trip back to Afghanistan, talk candidly about the consequences of terror and life the way it was under the Taliban, according to her observations and testimonials from her family in her former homeland.

One of the most dynamic elements of this, for me, is the women's rights issue under the Taliban, and the lengths taken to suppress the voices of Afghani women.

I will be doing the photography on the story, with the words being done by Courier Senior Staff Writer Alyssa Passeggio.