Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is my superhero. That's
why it's important for me to support women, to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history,
we need to bring the cultures of the world together. And when we listen to real people,
to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our humanity without our differences
or stereotypes, and we get inspired by their stories to live a better life. That's what this
podcast is all about. My guest today is Niloufar Imamdodovar. Niloufar is a psychology and
neuroscience student in Lake Forest College, Illinois, and she is originally from Tajikistan.
Niloufar is a United World College alumna in China, Shaanxi, and an activist aiming to improve
the quality of life in her communities because her biggest focus as well is protecting homeless
animals, in particular cats. Niloufar is the co-founder of a social project called
Vadim that aims at providing high quality resources to help human development in Tajikistan.
Niloufar, how are you today? Thank you. I'm great. How are you?
I'm feeling positive. I'm feeling lucky to be alive and very curious about you. So I'll
begin with this. If your friends could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
I think one of the things that would definitely mention, they would say,
I am responsible. So if I get any task, I make sure I finish it and then I finish it well.
Second, probably hard working. And third, optimistic, I guess. I think one of the things
I like about myself and my friends like about me is being optimistic and trying to be optimistic
even in worse days. I love that. That's really interesting. And to ask you, what motivates you
to be so hard working? What about life, about your mindset, your attitude gives you that fire
in your engine so that you work hard and you put your effort into what you want to have in this
world. While many people might feel more lazy or demotivated nowadays. To be honest, there's not
one specific thing that I think motivates me. It's probably so many things that I haven't
learned or so many things that I am about to learn that keep me wanting to progress and to grow.
And of course, my family is one of the biggest motivations in my life. Seeing my younger siblings
strive and look at me as an example, I think is one of the biggest parts of it.
I agree. That's a really powerful motivator. And to ask you even further, what does it mean
to be a girl from Tajikistan in 2022, especially now that you have been living in the US,
you are exposed to the culture there. Did you have any culture shock? Did it give you any
give you more clarity on what is the culture, the personality, the way of being of a girl from
Tajikistan today in almost 2023? I think I haven't been home for quite the time.
But one thing that I definitely remember is that it was a big shift for me because the first
country that I visited independently from my family was China before coming to the US.
And I think the biggest difference was that our communities are very different as in back home
communities or people in communities are more interdependent as in we have a very strong
bond between people. And I think that was one of the biggest shocks or I can't even say it's a
shock. It's more like a shift that I was noticing when I moved away. But being a girl in Tajikistan
in the community that I grew up in, it was definitely amazing. My parents, my family,
my friends always motivated me to be better, to grow. And yeah, I think it's great. Just
what you want from your life that helps a lot. Because as in any different country,
people have different ambitions, right? And there's no particular way of how it feels to be a girl or
a boy in a certain country. It depends on who you're surrounded by. And I was lucky to be
surrounded by amazing people. So I think my experience of being a girl in Tajikistan was
amazing. That's wonderful. I'm happy you have that attitude and positive energy related to
your life. And hopefully, it's a big part and an important component of your positivity.
Tell me about your love for animals. Do you feel where you have been, whether it's China
or Tajikistan or even in the US? What is the attitude of those societies to homeless animals,
to protecting cats? And what gave you and motivated you to have the energy and the desire
to make something that helps and supports those actively rather than just talking about it and
wishing for a better outcome? To be honest, I used to be scared of pets, cats, dogs, doesn't matter.
If I saw them outside, I would be changing my path and taking a different road.
But two years ago, my sister brought a little kitten to our house. And I think that was a very
life changing experience for me because I learned how to love them instead of being scared of them.
And I got very close to them. And I think my cat is definitely a reason why my perspective on that
shifted drastically. And since then, I've never been able to think any different about animals.
And the reason why I became very active is because I think youth back home doesn't have
a good example of how to treat animals. And some of them may do some things that may hurt
homeless animals. And that is very sad. So I think once I saw little kids throwing stones
or something like that, I don't remember exactly what was happening, but it was not something nice.
And I remember trying to like fight them back or like tell them not to do it. But I realized that
it's a big problem. So one of the first steps that I took was I started feeding cats and dogs
outside my house. I would go every morning and then my sister joined and then my brother joined.
And then the next day when I left for the US, my sister called me filming little kids from our
neighbor's houses. And they would come and they would feed the cats and the dogs too.
So I think it's a really I saw that there is a big impact and action rather than talking about it,
because I used to talk a lot, but then it would make a big difference. But as soon as I started
actually putting action into it, I saw how kids start changing their attitude. And now I can't say
that everyone in neighboring houses is perfectly fine with animals, but definitely a largest
portion of those small kids is not anymore doing those things that they used to do. And instead,
they feed them. And that's, I think it's something that motivates me a lot, because I see the
difference in making a change possible. And yeah, now that I'm away, the way I support it, I
sometimes help with fundraisings, I contribute to those. And that's the only way I can do it right
now. But in the US, animals are much loved. And I don't think I have noticed any homeless cats or
dogs around this area, Chicago area specifically, which is very surprising for me, because back
home, we have a lot of them. In China, we had an experience of seeing a lot of dogs outside
rather than cats, but they were also treated relatively much better than back home. So I think
yeah, my experience with animals outside my country was much more positive. Thank you. And
as someone who has lived in various continents, in various countries, do you feel a lot of people
know about your country, that they are aware of the culture, that they could even locate it on a
map? What do you think about that? What's your perspective? Definitely not. A lot of people,
I would say probably 95% of people that I have met since I left home, never knew Tajikistan existed.
And it's a big honor to me to being able to introduce my country and hopefully being a good
representative. And I usually show them pictures, I play music. And there are so many things that
every single country finds in common with my country or with my people. And that is just
very amazing, because I feel we have a very unique culture. And although our country is very small,
it has such diverse culture to it. And that is something that makes it very special, unlike
a lot other bigger countries. So it has been usually my responsibility to introduce my country
to a lot of people around me. And I think, yeah, and those who were able to locate it on the map,
or at least knew something about it, would usually say, Oh, I know, you have a lot of beautiful
mountains, you have a lot of beautiful people, they're very friendly. And of course, the cuisine
is amazing. So those are probably the things that pop up in their mind when I talk about Tajikistan.
I'm happy about that. And I'm happy that you're being such a great representative of your
culture, of your people, of your country. And to ask you about the subject you're studying,
which is psychology and neuroscience. How did you decide to study this subject specifically?
What was the story behind it? The drive, the desire? Tell me what fascinates you with this topic.
I think I would love to have this very nice story of how I was five and I decided to be a psychologist,
but my path was very much not like that. I used to think I want to be an audit or like economist
or anything, something related to finance until very much recently. So I studied in UWC,
as you mentioned, and I studied everything but sciences. So when I came to college, I needed
to fulfill one of the requirements, which was sciences. So I took chemistry course with
absolutely zero background in chemistry and just general in science. And I fell in love with that
subject. So I saw what are the opportunities that I can do like, or can explore based on what I like.
And psychology, I think, was always in the back of my mind, but I didn't take this as serious.
But then I decided to explore, and I took psychology course. And after some time, I realized
that I'm actually enjoying it a lot. And psychology and neuroscience was a good combination in my
school. So what I did was to see if I would like it, I applied for a summer program in my school,
it's called Richter program. And it's an experience of working in a laboratory. And I was chosen
to work in this neuroscience and BNB laboratory, and I absolutely loved it. So after that, I
declared my major in my first year in spring semester. And that was it, actually, I just fell
in love with the subjects. And I felt that's definitely what I want to do. And like, it has
been almost a year, and I don't doubt that this is definitely something I would want to do for the
rest of my life.
I love that. And I love when life teaches you about yourself because of your experiences in
ways that give you clarity on the next part of your path and to understand you even more since
you wanted to study economics and all that. Are you a logical person? Or are you more driven by
emotions? Are you a person who's more about science and objectivity and facts? Or do you believe
in metaphysical things and maybe karma and manifesting and the energy of the world, etc?
Tell me more about yourself.
I think when it comes to making decisions, I am more of a logical person, or at least I try to
be more of a logical person, because emotions for me sometimes can make me choose wrong decisions.
But yeah, mostly logical. But when it comes to believing in metaphysical stuff, or being more
about facts, I think both, because I really do think I enjoy studying science and it being facts
and theories rather than I need to guess or I need to, you know, the things that are not science.
And when it comes to metaphysical, I think the biggest role, my culture plays the biggest role
in this, because we really, we are Muslims, so we believe in God and, you know, those, all those
things, they do affect our culture. So there's no way I can say that I don't believe in metaphysical,
you know, things. And yeah, I think I just combine both of them. And whenever I'm in class, so when
it comes to my work, I believe in science, but when I'm out, I become a completely different person.
So it's like two personalities in one. And yeah, I do believe in manifestations and all those things.
Thank you. That's funny and cool to have such a wide range to your personality and to know even
more. It seems to be important for you to create projects that help developing people in
developing people in your country. What do you feel is necessary to develop? What is missing?
What could be improved? What's your perspective on the people in your country? And how are you
aiming to elevate their potential? Who and their way of being? I think as in like any other country
in the world, there's not a single problem that I see in my community or in my society to be more
precise. And one of the things that I realized is something that I can change on my own as an
individual or as part of the social project body is definitely education. Because I feel like
education plays an important role in people's lives and in their further decisions in their
lives that they take. So all the other problems that come afterwards are more or less related to
not being educated. So I think one thing that I would love to be able to do is to make the
willingness or I don't know to increase the desire to study in the kids or the youth, teenagers specifically,
because I feel like the desire and the drive towards education is lower than it used to be.
And the person when I go back, I can definitely feel it. And that's very sad, because I feel
like education is one of the most beautiful things that people nowadays can afford mostly.
And if you do have an opportunity, then you should definitely use it. And for those who do not have
opportunity, I think this is what I am here for, to be able to try to help those who don't have
the opportunity or the financial means to provide their education. So yeah, definitely education is
one of the biggest things that I would want to focus on. And I feel like once we fix this, or
at least halfway through fixing it, a lot of other problems will just disappear automatically,
because they come out of that bigger umbrella. That's fantastic and such a noble goal. And you
have lived in so many countries. Where do you see your future to be? Do you plan to visit even more
cultures, maybe spend a year in Italy and enjoy that rich culture there and in some months in
South America and discover their ways of being and be a globe throtter all over the world? Or
do you see yourself studying and living in the US for the foreseeable future or returning home
to create some projects? Or what does your heart desire? I think for me, we have this proverb
in my language, we say, the best place is the place I haven't been to. So I think definitely I
will try to see more countries. I have been to a couple of continents, but I will definitely want
to explore all of them. And right now my goal is I'm applying for study abroad to go to London,
probably, or Netherlands, so Europe. I would want to explore Europe and then eventually try to go to
Canada. And for now, I think my top choice of the place where I would want to continue living is
Canada and the US. I prioritize Canada more for some reason. I don't know, I just feel like it.
There's no rational reason behind it. I think this is one of my emotional, actually,
choices. And I see myself growing and living abroad for the most part. Yes.
Thank you. That's really, really great. And you have been to China, you needed to make new friends
to the US where you needed to make new friends. Do you find it easy to make new friends in cultures
that are different to your home country? Or if so, imagine someone is listening, they need to go
to another country to study and they're a bit anxious how to make new friends. What would you
recommend to them? How should they go about not being alone and isolated in a new culture?
Yes, I think it's a very important topic. But I also think it really depends on the personality
of the person. Because for me, making friends has never been the biggest priority. I used to always
think how I will be able to be successful in my work, more than I have to focus on making friends.
Because I feel like those things, they happen naturally. So when I went to China, it was my
first experience away from home for such a long time. And it was very stressful. But slowly,
after some time, I was able to find my people. And I think the only way you can find your people is
being yourself. So definitely, I would suggest being yourself and not trying to, you know,
make anyone happy by changing what you would actually like. And slowly, you will be able to
find those people that will make a group of good friends. And right now, I feel I'm much more
confident in my friends and the people that I have around me. Because they just happen to be next to
me. And it's slowly, it built up slowly. After a year, I can definitely say I have a settled group
of friends that I will want to be in touch with for the rest of my life. And yeah, I think the
biggest part of it is being yourself. And once they accept you the way you are, and you don't
need to be similar, because I feel like it's such a big mistake to want your friends be like you.
It is definitely much more fun to be different, so that you can learn from each other. And you
can grow together. And I think there are more differences between me and my friends than
similarities. But when it comes to like, the cultural part, I feel like it's very easy to
make friends because there are so many things that we share. I don't know whether it's
due to globalization, or is it just that happens to be that my friends are mostly Muslims, Arabs,
you know, we have a lot in common too. And that helps a lot. But I definitely think there are
more similarities between individuals around the world than you would ever think. So be positive,
and just be yourself, and that will be enough. Thank you so much, Niloufar. This was my privilege,
my honor. Such a wonderful way to share about your life, your experience, your voice, your soul with
the world. Thank you for participating in this project, and I wish you success. Thank you so
much for having me here, and I hope everything is good. And it's an amazing opportunity. Thank you
so much. It's an amazing project, and I'm very proud to be part of it. Thank you very much.
