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Afghan evacuees mark first US Ramadan with gratitude, agony

Sana Sultani, 8, watches children's programming on television in the motel room she shares with her parents and five siblings in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. The Sultanis, one family among thousands of Afghans evacuated to the United States as the Taliban regained power last summer, moved into a duplex just in time to celebrate their first Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the U.S. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Cuts of a freshly slaughtered lamb is seen in the fridge of the Sultani family’s new duplex in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, April 3, 2022. Khial Mohammad Sultani, an Afghan evacuee resettled in the United States with his wife and six children, had to ride nearly 80 miles round trip in a taxi to find a lamb to buy and slaughter according to halal custom for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto) Shel Alam Momand prays before breaking the Ramadan fast at his new apartment in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, April 3, 2022. Momand, his wife and six children are among thousands of Afghans evacuated to the United States as the Taliban regained power last summer who are celebrating their first Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the U.S. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Khial Mohammad Sultani holds the prayer rug that's among his family most treasured possessions in the family's motel room in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. His father brought it from Mecca after another son was killed by the Taliban, Sultani said, and now Sultani brought it to his new life in the United States, where he, his wife and six children were evacuated from Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power last summer. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) The three oldest Sultani children, from left, Sana, 8; Elaha, 9, and Shafiullah, 11, eat a midday meal prepared by their mother in the motel room the family shares in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. The children, their three younger siblings and parents were evacuated from Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power last summer. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Khial Mohammad Sultani holds the Quran in the motel where he, his wife and six children were resettled in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. Sultani plans to continue to teach the Muslim faith to his children, as his father did for him in Afghanistan, from where they were evacuated when the Taliban regained power last summer. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Four of Khial Mohammad and Noor Bibi Sultani's children pose in the motel room they share with two more siblings in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. The family, evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban regained power last summer, spent months in the motel room with only a few possessions until they moved into a new apartment just in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Khial Mohammad Sultani recalls how the family barely escaped Afghanistan during the United States' chaotic withdrawal last summer as his three oldest children play with phones in their motel room in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. The family spent months in the motel room with only a few possessions until they moved into a new apartment just in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Elaha Sultani, 9, and her brother Shafiullah Sultani, 11, pray at the motel room they share with their parents and four siblings in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, March 26, 2022. The family was evacuated from Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power last summer and spent months in the motel room with only a few possessions – most treasured among them, the green rug where Elaha prayed. Her grandfather brought it from Mecca after her uncle was killed by the Taliban, the family said. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Afghan refugee Shirkhan Nejat, left, talks to his 2-month-old son, Ansar, at the family's Oklahoma City apartment on Saturday, April 2, 2022. In the background are Joseph Pham, left, a refugee case manager for Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City; a translator, center; and Carly Akard, director of communications for Catholic Charities. (AP Photo/Bobby Ross Jr.) Wolayat Khan Samadzoi prays using beads made in the colors of the flag of his native Afghanistan in his new apartment in Las Cruces, N.M., Saturday, April 2, 2022. Samadzoi and thousands of other Afghans evacuated to the United States as the Taliban regained power last summer are celebrating their first Muslim holy month of Ramadan here – grateful to be safe, but agonizing over their families back home under the repressive Taliban regime. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Wolayat Khan Samadzoi and his four-year-old son, Gawhar, in a uniform of the Afghan military sewed by his mother, pose under the Afghan flag in their new apartment in Las Cruces, N.M., on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Samadzoi and thousands of other Afghans evacuated to the United States as the Taliban regained power last summer are celebrating their first Muslim holy month of Ramadan here – grateful to be safe, but agonizing over their families back home under the repressive Taliban regime. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Qais Sharifi, left, and Abdul Amir Qarizada, right, leave the mosque in Las Cruces, N.M., after attending Friday prayer on April 1, 2022. Both Afghan men were evacuated to the United States when Kabul fell to the Taliban without even the time to bring their wives and children. So instead of celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with their loved ones, they planned to partake of free nightly iftar meals at the Southern New Mexico Islamic Center. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto) Wolayat Khan Samadzoi watches through the open balcony door of his apartment for the sliver of new moon to appear in the cloudless sky, where the sun had set beyond a desert mountain, in Las Cruces, N.M., Saturday, April 2, 2022. Samadzoi and thousands of other Afghans evacuated to the United States as the Taliban regained power last summer are celebrating their first Muslim holy month of Ramadan here – grateful to be safe, but agonizing over their families back home under the repressive Taliban regime. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)