CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – He’s a private first class, but Zach Yousufi knows more about life with the Taliban than perhaps any of his fellow soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division.
One of his sisters died under the Taliban’s failed medical system. He’s been wounded twice – once in each leg – by shrapnel from suicide bombs. And in 2009, his brother’s family was assassinated by the Taliban.
“Unfortunately, I was born in war,” Yousufi said in an interview with Clarksville Now and Clarksville’s Conversation.
So when America starting pulling out of Afghanistan, and the Taliban started taking back control, Yousufi knew he had to get his family out. Luckily, he had brothers-in-arms with the 101st Airborne who could help make that happen – who could get them to safety in America.
“The way I was raised, this (America) is a kingdom you live in. I know it’s hard, you may be in pain. … That’s nothing compared to the people who were born and raised in war and fight for their life to just survive.”
A father’s protection from Taliban
Pfc. Mohammad Zekria “Zach” Yousufi was born in Kabul in 1988, the year the Russians pulled out and civil war began.
“After that, the situation got really bad. We lost a lot of family, friends. It was war, so that’s common,” he said.
By 1996, the Taliban had gained control over most of Afghanistan, bringing order and safety from pillaging warlords. But with that order came strict religious control.
“When I was a kid during Taliban regime, if you parked your car anywhere and left your keys inside, nobody dared to take your car away, because they knew that they (the Taliban) were going to cut off their hand.”
Yousufi was luckier than most: His father had studied engineering in Germany and was a teacher in a university in Kabul.
“Going to school, we did not learn anything, but they (the Taliban) were trying to teach us all kinds of forced religious stuff,” Yousufi said. “But my father was a very intellectual and wise person. Whenever I came from school, he asked me what I learned and he told me ‘OK, this is right, this is wrong. Memorize that to pass the exam but never act on that.'”
An educated Muslim well-versed in the Koran, his father taught him that the “Taliban is taking one verse from the Koran and adds 10 onto it,” leading people to think things are Islamic teachings that are not.
Yousufi’s two older brothers were eligible to be recruited as Taliban soldiers, so his father sent them away to keep them safe.
Many other men would marry their daughters off for money. “My father never did that,” Yousufi said. “He brought one bread, but he sliced that bread into parts, and he said, ‘That’s enough. I know it’s hard that this is small piece of bread, but still it can keep you alive. You don’t die from hunger, but I don’t want to marry my daughter to older man and give my son to somebody to work for – just be happy for that bread.’ That’s how he raised us for almost all our lives.”
His father died last year at age 63. During their last conversation, his father told him: “‘Decide to live peacefully and decide to teach people what you know. And always avoid anger, impatience, and be good with people.’
“That was his last sentences, and he hugged me and he said goodbye.”
Teacher, translator, then soldier
When the Taliban collapsed in 2001, Yousufi put away his turban and “manjammies” as he called them and went back to wearing T-shirts and jeans. He was offered a chance to teach English, and that became his first career. Eventually, he started Global Institute, a pay-what-you-can school for both rich and poor families that at one point had 2,500 students.
When he was teaching, Yousufi found out the U.S. Army needed trustworthy people to serve as translators. For the next nine years, he worked as an interpreter, cultural adviser and mission analyst in Afghanistan.
During this time, he was injured twice by shrapnel from suicide bombs, and his brother’s family was assassinated. In 2014, he was told the Taliban were looking for him, and he decided it was time to get out. In 2015, he got his visa, and he moved to the U.S. in 2016.
After working briefly in a civilian job in Washington, D.C., Yousufi got tired of office life and joined the Army. He’s been stationed at Fort Campbell as an infantryman since 2020.
When U.S. forces began their withdrawal from Afghanistan over the summer, Yousufi worried about his family left behind, including his mother and several brothers and sisters. And one sister was pregnant. Unsure how to get them out, Yousufi turned to his commanding officer.
Escaping Afghanistan
Capt. Jon McNeal has 87 soldiers under him, so he’s used to being the go-to for soldiers’ personal problems. “I get a lot of issues every day, but obviously this one stuck out to me,” McNeal said.
McNeal contacted his higher-ups to get the paperwork moving. The matter went to 101st Airborne’s legal team, and then to the Pentagon.
“The Army does a very good job getting rid of that red tape in order to make sure that soldier’s whose families are in other countries get the help they need,” McNeal said.
They were able to get family’s visas approved, but as the situation grew more critical in Afghanistan, the challenge went from pushing along documents to directly arranging an escape.
A colonel in the Marine Corps was able to get his people on the ground to contact members of Yousufi’s family: his mother, his youngest brother, his oldest sister and her husband, plus their two children, ages 3 and 5.
They made it safely to the airport, but the way inside was blocked. About 10,000 people were crammed into a 100-meter gap between Taliban and U.S. forces – everyone from YouTubers and singers to social workers and attorneys – all trying to get into the airport.
Yousufi was able to reach his brother-in-law by phone. “He said, ‘It is impossible It’s a human wall, I cannot cross it.’ Especially, my sister was pregnant – it was her 36th week.”
Sweating in the heat, with no food and no easy way to go back, they spent hours there.
Finally, late into the night, the Marines on the ground were able to find them a way inside and onto a departing airplane.
https://soundcloud.com/clarksville-conversation/private-first-class-mohammad-yousufi
Making a new home
McNeal said it was important to him to help Yousufi, who’s not your typical early-career private. “To me, he served our country, whether in uniform or out of uniform, for the past 10 years,” McNeal said.
Most of Yousufi’s surviving family is now safe in their new home in America.
His sister was pregnant when they landed, and her child was born stateside, making that child the family’s first birthright American citizen. Yousufi was given the honor of naming his niece, and he chose “Yusra.”
“Y stands for Yousufi family, and USRA is United States rescue Afghan,” he said.
Coincidentally, in Arabic the word “yusra” has its own meaning: “success.”