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Henna Rustami Determined To Make a Difference

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DyeStat.com   Mar 30th 2017, 4:18pm
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Henna Rustami Driven To Be Something More

Columbia senior and daughter of Afghan immigrants has become a champion on the track 

 

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Afifa Rustami watched with bated breath as her daughter, Henna, in the powder blue uniform of Columbia University, took the baton for the final leg of the women’s distance medley relay Feb. 26 at the Ivy League Indoor Championships.

With eight laps to run, and a six-second gap to overcome, Afifa prepared herself to accept disappointment.

“When I saw that big gap between Henna and the first girl, I thought ‘no way she can reach that.’ I turned to my son and asked, ‘Do you think she can make it?’”

Henna’s younger brother said, ‘Yes,’ he thought she could.

On the track, the Columbia senior, emboldened by her win in 9:34.66 in the 3,000 meters Feb. 25, settled in and chipped away at the task.

Coach Dan Ireland cautioned her to stay cool, close the gap gradually.

It worked. Rustami ran the fastest anchor leg of 4 minutes, 38.6 seconds and sprinted past all of the remaining contenders in the final 200 to lead the Lions to victory in a meet-record 11:25.07 at The Armory in New York. INTERVIEW

The reaction of her mother was poignant.

“Words cannot explain,” Afifa Rustami said. “I get into tears just thinking about it.”

It’s remarkable because Henna Rustami once feared that she was the worst runner on her high school track team, and then later the worst runner at Columbia.

It’s more remarkable because her parents, Zabi and Afifa, both fled war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s.  

Rustami will race in the fast section of the 5,000 meters Friday at the 42nd Stanford Invitational, with the possibility of breaking the Columbia school record of 15:37.85 set in 2014 by Waverly Neer. Rustami’s personal best is 16:18.87 from last year’s Virginia Challenge, ranking her fifth in program history.

But her breakthrough at the Ivy League Indoor meet, known as the Heps, has altered dynamics within her family and the Afghan community on Long Island.

Zabi Rustami said he watched the replay video “every hour for one week.”

“It changed our position,” he said. “The way we talk to her is with very high respect. It changed life for her family, especially the kids. She has more than 50 cousins. Most of them, it changed their lifestyle, the way they exercise and the way they are eating. She’s a role model. Everybody’s proud of her.”

###

Zabi Rustami left Afghanistan at 17 years old in late 1980. The Soviet army had been in Kabul for nearly a year by then and as money began to pour in to insurgent groups, the country became a hot spot in the Cold War.

Rustami, who had led a good life and learned French in school, knew he had to get out. He walked 100 miles over three days and nights, with a cousin, to the Pakistan border. Each night, he could hear the screeching sounds of Soviet fighter planes overhead.

Zabi eventually made his way to Germany, where he lived for six years and continued his education, before coming to the United States to rejoin family members.

In 1984, Afifa left Afghanistan.

“It was a scary situation,” she said. “When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, they would go after Afghan boys. My mom was scared for my brother’s life. My father (a doctor) was away, in London. We walked in the dark all night through the woods (to get out).”

Afifa’s family, led by her father, emigrated to Massachusetts. At a party in Boston is where Zabi and Afifa met.

After they were married, the couple settled in Syosset on Long Island.  It was a 40-minute commute to Manhattan. The Rustamis found a home there, on purpose, because of the strong reputation of the schools.

They blended into a neighborhood that was a tapestry of cultures – Jewish, Korean and Muslim.

Their Afghan community was important, but their views on religion were moderate.

“My parents were not super strict when it comes to religion,” said Henna, who has two younger siblings. “I don’t pray five times a day. We do observe Ramadan. I went to Sunday school. I know all my prayers and I know how to read Arabic.”

Zabi and Afifa were determined that their kids be educated and have opportunities, not be stifled by religious doctrine.

“God is for everybody,” Zabi said. “Respect all human beings. Everybody (else) is not wrong.”

Henna got her first taste of running in the seventh grade when her gym teacher remarked that she had “good form” and suggested she join the track team.

“I hated it,” she said. “I was not very good and I didn’t take it seriously. I quit in the eighth grade. I remember pretending to get lost at the high school we went to for meets to avoid my races.”

At Syosset High, where kids were affluent and hyper-focused on academics and college, Henna decided being on a sports team would be a good idea.

“I was one of the worst girls on the team freshman year,” she said. “We had a 300-meter time trial and I ran 65 to 70 (seconds), absurdly slow.”

Syosset coach Mike Spiteri confirmed it.

“She will go down as one of my all-time favorites,” Spiteri said. “But there was nothing special there to start. She started in the novice group of beginners. She had no wheels, no speed.”

Rustami made the trip to the Yale Classic in 2010 and ran 12:57 for 3,000 meters. She was happy to break 13 minutes, and it caused her to start getting interested.

“By 10th grade, we started to talk about how this could turn into something. She looked at some of girls who had graduated and found some motivation,” Spiteri said.

In the summer before her junior year, Rustami went with her family to visit relatives in Colorado. Spiteri chastised her for taking a break from her training and how it was going to set her back for cross country.

But a year later, before her senior year, Henna invited a few of her teammates, and Spiteri, to come along to Colorado.

“I got to spend time with her family,” he said. “I got to see her Sweet 16 (celebration). It was truly fascinating. It opened my eyes to the fact this family is from Afghanistan. I left feeling bad that I had given her a hard time the year before.”

Near the end of the trip, Spiteri remembered asking Henna whether her family understood the progress she was making in track and field, and in becoming a successful athlete.

“One uncle kind of got it,” Spiteri said. “A lot of them didn’t.”

As a senior, Henna ran a personal-best 10:14 in the 3,000. She was one of the top runners in Nassau County.

But it didn’t happen overnight. 

###

Henna Rustami at HepsAfifa Rustami waited patiently, hours on end, in the car, waiting for her daughter to return from long runs in the woods.

Every time Henna emerged from her workout, her mother breathed a sigh of relief.

But one evening after work, Zabi got a phone call from his wife. He drove straight to the park. He found his wife and his daughter both crying.

“Why are you crying?” he asked Afifa.

“Because she is struggling and as a mother I cannot take it,” she said.

He turned to Henna. “Why are you crying?”

“Tell mom it’s OK. I can do it.”

This scene, of course, is not unique to Afghans or Syosset. It could happen anywhere.

But the process of becoming a serious runner in the Rustami family was not always easy.

“If she couldn’t convince me out of going for a 10-mile run at 7 p.m. in the evening on a summer day, then she was just going to make sure she was there at the park until I was finished,” Henna said. “I am so incredibly lucky to have parents who allow me to pursue my goals and dreams without necessarily fully understanding why or how something like running could mean as much as it does to me.”

As an Afghan, particularly female, there was simply no precedent for Henna’s desire to become successful in sports. Getting used to the commitment, to the lack of coverage afforded by track uniforms, and to the ups and downs of wins and losses, was all new.

Afghanistan is one of the most challenging places in the world to be a woman. Half of girls are married by the age of 12. Eighty-five percent of women have no formal education or are illiterate. Progress is being made, in certain areas, since the Taliban lost control of the country, but the prospects for most women outside of a domestic life remains limited.

As she graduated from Syosset, Henna was an ‘A’ student and a solid runner. She qualified for the New York state meet in 2013 and placed 17th in the 3,000.

She was showing ability, but still lacked confidence.

“She struggled in high school with racing at big meets,” Spiteri said. “At low-key meets, she would do well.”

### 

Rustami was accepted to Columbia on the merits of her academics.

A coach at Syosset made a phone call on her behalf and helped get her a spot on the track team.

She arrived on campus, thrilled by her new school and overwhelmed by cross country practice.

“I was the worst girl on the team as a freshman,” Henna said. “I didn’t make Heps in cross country. I dropped almost every workout. Those times were really dark. I’d come back to my room crying and feeling so embarrassed. I imagined my teammates thinking ‘Why is this girl here?’”

She kept plugging away, convinced that she had more to give.

During the indoor track season, she broke 10 minutes for the first time in the 3,000. Then she drove that time outdoors down to 9:36.89 at Penn Relays.

As a sophomore, with new coach Dan Ireland, she developed an injury that wiped out part of her year.

“We saw some flashes, a couple of practices here or there,” Ireland said.

In September 2015, the team was working out at Van Cortlandt Park in the back hills. Henna slowed, and stopped, due to discomfort in her hip. The injury was not severe, but it had wiped out much of the previous season.

“I was direct with her and said ‘You’ve got to find a better way to stay healthy,’” Ireland said. “Since then, she’s been nothing but going up.”

Rustami is a bit shorter than 5 feet 1. She has a small frame and runs on her toes. Her build and her running form have always served her well.

Last fall, despite her previous insistence to Ireland that she was no good at cross country, she finished 15th at Heps and rallied to eighth at the NCAA Northeast Regional. That earned her a spot on the starting line Nov. 19 at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. (where she placed 189th).

Building upon a strong cross country season led to an even better indoor season and the breakout at the Heps indoor meet. She missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 3,000 by three seconds, running her season-best 9:10.56 at the Villanova Invitational on Feb. 4.

Ireland has been around the Ivy League for a long time and seen many athletes excel in their senior years.

“Most of the kids are good coming in (to the Ivy League), but sometimes they get sidetracked,” Ireland said. “They go into their senior year thinking they want to get something out of their time. Ivy kids do not want to waste their time.”

For Rustami, the heart of the issue was gaining the confidence to be fierce, competitive and go after her goals.

“It was more of a mindset thing,” she said. “I was not going to be afraid to run at a high level. I totally deserve to line up against everybody else.” 

###

Now more than ever, Henna Rustami sees a chance to make a difference. Her success in running can be a beacon that is visible for those halfway around the world.

“It’s crazy to think how different my life could have been,” she said. “It makes me think I owe the girls and women of Afghanistan my best (effort). I owe it to them to pursue these opportunities because I’ve been so lucky.”

Rustami is a double major, studying political science and women and gender studies. She is planning a future that includes law school and is still a bit uncertain how running will fit into her life after this spring.

“I’d love to do civil rights law, perhaps international human rights law, focused on the Middle East or Africa, to promote women’s rights,” Henna said. “I can’t wait to do what I can to make the world a little better.”

Before she does that, Henna is determined to make her mark on the outdoor track season. Her primary goal is to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Running and being part of the teams at Syosset and Columbia have helped Henna realize that there is more possible than what is expected.

“She said to me, ‘Don’t expect me to be a regular person. I have to be somebody in the world,’” Zabi Rustami said.

To her parents, who have sacrificed so much to that Henna and her siblings have first-rate educations and opportunities, these words make them beyond proud.

Back at Syosset, Henna Rustami’s story is well known among the track athletes. Spiteri encourages the struggling freshmen by telling them about the girl who started off with 12:57 and then ran 10:14 by her senior year. And, oh yeah, she is an Ivy League champion.

“She’s a role model,” Spiteri said. “I have a girl on the team right now who has been a contributor. Her family is from Pakistan. When I told her the story of Henna, she became really interested.

“She’s got that little fire inside that nobody knows about.”



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