About

My relationship to storytelling began long before filmmaking. My family arrived in the United States as refugees from Afghanistan, and I grew up navigating multiple cultural realities shaped by displacement, conflict, and belonging. Later, my service in the Peace Corps and my work as a military interpreter in combat environments further deepened my understanding of how language, power, and narrative operate under pressure—how meaning shifts depending on who is speaking, who is listening, and what is at stake.

These experiences continue to inform my work not simply as subject matter, but as a way of seeing. They shaped an approach grounded in listening, ethical responsibility, and long-term relationships with the people and communities I work alongside.

My films explore how individuals and societies make meaning in moments of rupture and change. I am drawn to stories that resist simplification and hold space for ambiguity, dignity, and complexity—stories where narrative carries real consequence. Across my work, authorship is inseparable from responsibility, and craft is inseparable from care.

This practice is carried forward through The Taleem Project, an independent media and narrative intelligence studio I founded to support films, ideas, and collaborations that engage story with depth and intention. Through this work, I operate across documentary filmmaking, advisory roles, and public engagement—creating space for dialogue across differences and for narratives that deepen understanding rather than resolve it prematurely.

My films have screened internationally and have been recognized with Emmy, Peabody, and Edward R. Murrow Awards, with multiple works shortlisted for Academy Award consideration. I was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of my contributions to documentary storytelling, education, and cross-cultural understanding.