Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series 2022/2023

Stories As We Move: Hlawn Hlawn (Myanmar/California) in conversation with Maryam Durani (Afghanistan/Milwaukee) on March 11, 2022

Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series is an ongoing project that launched in 2020 as part of Lynden's HOME virtual platform. Previously named HOME Conversations with Ourselves, the series pairs individuals that have faced forced displacement and its changing forms in a conversational setting that is both purposeful and informational to interviewer, interviewee and their audience. Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants interview those that have resettled to the United States, including friends and family that are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as those that remain overseas, covering various backgrounds and narrative identities, and professions, expertise and interests, including but not limited to artists, community members, advocates and leaders, healthcare workers, caseworkers, interpreters, and students and educators. These interviews are reflections of relationships and conversations that we continue to have long after resettlement; they explore issues that our refugee friends and family members continue to face as they remain in their country of origin or interim country.

About Biak Tha Hlawn
Biak Tha Hlawn, or Hlawn Hlawn, is an undergraduate student attending Stanford University with an intended major in international relations. Hlawn Hlawn was born and raised in Thantlang, Chin State, and briefly relocated to Malaysia from 2008 to 2010 before immigrating to the United States. She has served in many leadership roles throughout her years in high school at Ronald Reagan and graduated with distinction. Hlawn Hlawn continues her passion for advocacy and activism to this day. In response to the February 1st military coup in 2021, she co-founded Chin Leaders, a Chin youth-led organization, and serves as the Executive Director. At the United States Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar (USACM), she serves as the social media manager and lobbyist. At Stanford, she serves as a fellow for the Asian Women’s Alliance’s Service and Advocacy Committee. Hlawn Hlawn is a Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) Scholar, Elks Scholar, and Horatio Alger National Scholar. In addition, she has been named the 2019 Youth of the Year by Carson Chin Baptist Church and Senior of the Year by the Milwaukee Public Schools district. Hlawn Hlawn aspires to be the change she seeks in the world.

About Maryam Durani
Maryam Durani is an Afghan activist, an elected official and an internationally recognized advocate for the rights of Afghan women and girls. As a young adult, Durani served as a Kandahar Provincial Council Member twice for 14 years, and since her many years of council service, she has been a vocal advocate for women’s rights, firmly committed to building an inclusive and equitable society. She is the founder of the Kandahar Women Advocacy Network, in addition to leading Khadija Kobra Women's Association for Culture, the non-government organization that works to uphold women's rights in Afghanistan. A program under Khadija Kobra, she ran a women's health club and gym that garnered international attention. She managed Mirman Radio of Kandahar, the only local female-focused radio station, and is the founder of the Malalai Maiwandi Internet café, a free women's internet café that aims to connect women within a thriving environment and safe space, also the first of its kind in Afghanistan. She founded the House of Learning, an institute of modern studies for girls education free of cost. Durani studied business at the American University of Afghanistan, and read law and political science at Noor University. Recognizing her important work and contribution to women's rights at a national and global scale, Durani is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the U.S. Secretary of State's Award for International Women of Courage, and was highlighted as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012, an honor that she shared with Russian democratic politician Alexei Navalny and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 2013, she was one of 30 young activists recognized by the National Endowment for Democracy with support for her work to empower women to take on leadership roles, and in 2014, she received the Four Freedoms Medal for Freedom of Speech. In 2015, she received the International Peace Generation Award. She has received the Brave Woman Award from the State of Pennsylvania, the Women's Rights Protector Award from Washington, and an Iraq and Afghanistan Female Peace Activist Appreciation Letter from Turkey. She is considered both a leader and role model for women throughout Afghanistan, and is undeterred in her mission to promote basic civil rights for all Afghans. In 2021, she fled the ongoing humanitarian crisis and resettled to the United States with her family. She now lives in Wisconsin.

Check out the entire collection of Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series here.