Abbas Nazari

Guest writer

Abbas Nazari fled Afghanistan with his family as a child in 2001, eventually resettling in Christchurch. He is a Fulbright New Zealand scholar in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University, Washington DC. His memoir After the Tampa: From Afghanistan to New Zealand is out now via Allen & Unwin.

The Assadi family in Raised by Refugees (Photo: Sky TV/Supplied)

Raised by Refugees brings my immigrant childhood to life, with even more laughter

For Afghan-New Zealander Abbas Nazari, the new Pax Assadi comedy stirs memories of his own family life in the early 2000s.

By Abbas Nazari | 24th February, 2022

Photo: Abbas Nasziri

I remember 9/11. I’d just been rescued by an Australian frigate

While the world recoiled, we we watched from a frigate.

By Abbas Nazari | 5th January, 2022

Photo: Abbas Nasziri

Abbas Nazari: What 9/11 means to me

While the world recoiled, we we watched from a frigate.

By Abbas Nazari | 11th September, 2021

An Australian navy ship passes by the MV Tampa off Christmas Island, 2 September 2001 (Photo: Craig Sillitoe of Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

From the Taliban into the storm: a story of terror at sea

A young family's harrowing journey to safety.

By Abbas Nazari | 23rd August, 2021

A protest in New York in May (Photo: Ron Adar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The inquiry may be over, but the fight against white extremism is just beginning

While these groups started out in the fringes, many are now in the political mainstream, lurching traditionally progressive politics to the centre-right.

By Abbas Nazari | 10th December, 2020

Looking at New Zealand through the lens of the US

Looking at New Zealand through the lens of the US

With calamitous US politics stoking fear and division in an already fraught nation, the New Zealand election makes for a calm and refreshing change.

By Abbas Nazari | 19th October, 2020

Al Noor Mosque shooting survivor Wasseim Alsati after the sentencing at the Christchurch High Court (Photo: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Justice has been served in Christchurch. What comes next?

Let us hope the sentence handed down today allows the victims and their families to breathe a little easier.

By Abbas Nazari | 27th August, 2020

A two block section of 16th Street NW in downtown Washington, DC was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by Mayor Muriel Bowser on June 5. Photo: Abbas Nazari

Is this different? A New Zealander in Washington DC on two weeks of upheaval

As some sense of normality returns to the streets of the US capital, the focus has shifted to political action – but this protest movement is not over.

By Abbas Nazari | 13th June, 2020

Asylum seekers from Norwegian freighter the MV Tampa and local fishing boat the Aceng arrive at Nauru off the Australian coast on 19 September 2001. (Photo by Fairfax Media/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)

As a Tampa refugee, I have seen first-hand the impact when NZ takes moral leadership

As hundreds of refugees cry out for help from Manus Island, we need to remember what we're really about as a nation, writes Abbas Nazari.

By Abbas Nazari | 11th November, 2017