A migrants journey

Samiuddin, son of Tajuddin, from Laghman province of the Safi Tribe

The Origins of a Name: Identity and Necessity

Today, the Zhouand family extends to more than 200 members across the world, united by a surname that was born not from ancient custom, but from modern necessity. In traditional Afghan culture, particularly among Pashtuns, identity is not carried only through a fixed surname. It is carried through lineage, tribe, village, province and family memory. A person might not introduce himself by a surname in the Western sense. He might say: I am Samiuddin, son of Tajuddin, from Laghman, of the Safi tribe. That form of identity is not vague. It is precise. It tells another Afghan who you are, where you come from, and how you belong.

Other communities in Afghanistan developed their own naming traditions. Some families used a father’s first name as an identifier. Others used geography, such as Panjshiri, Kabuli or Badakhshi. Many Hazara families used regional, tribal or religious identifiers. Across Afghanistan, a name often carried a map of family, place and history.

For Samiuddin, the need to adopt a fixed surname came suddenly when he was required to travel internationally for scholarship and official purposes. To foreign immigration systems, “Samiuddin, son of Tajuddin, from Laghman, of the Safi tribe” was culturally complete, but administratively impossible. Faced with the need to choose, he selected Zhouand, from the Pashto word for life.

In that moment of shared humour, a dear friend travelling with him faced the same problem and chose Roshanfekr, meaning enlightened or thoughtful. What began as a practical response to Western paperwork became the name of a family tree that would grow across continents.

A Vision of Equality and Justice

Afghanistan is a country of many peoples, languages, cultures and histories. Samiuddin understood that every person, whatever their background, carried the same dignity and the same right to belong to the nation. That belief shaped his life in law.

The 1964 Constitution recognised Afghanistan as a nation of citizens. Article 1 provided that the Afghan nation was composed of all those who possessed the citizenship of the State of Afghanistan, and that the word “Afghan” applied to each such individual.

Article 2 recognised Islam as the sacred religion of Afghanistan, while also providing that non-Muslim citizens were free to perform their rituals.

For Samiuddin, these were not empty words. They were principles that required laws, courts, institutions and courage. His work belonged to that effort: the building of a modern legal framework in which citizenship, dignity and justice could be given practical meaning.

The night the world changed

The life of the Zhouand family changed during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Samiuddin Zhouand had spent his public life refusing to bend law to political pressure. As a senior jurist and public official, that independence made him vulnerable when power shifted and judicial offices became targets of political control.

On the night the Soviets arrived, he received an urgent telephone call warning him that he was in immediate danger. There was no time to plan, no time to gather the family, and no time to say farewell properly.

That night, he boarded a flight to India.

He left behind his home, his office, his position and, most painfully, his family. He stepped into the unknown because remaining meant danger, and perhaps death. That was the beginning of exile.

The Road to Australia

Every member of the family endured their own path to safety. No single person’s suffering stands above another’s. What matters is that, after displacement, the family did not choose bitterness or victimhood. Led by Samiuddin’s example, they rebuilt through education, work, service and contribution. Australia became the Zhouand family’s forever home through an extraordinary chain of human connection.

In the 1970s, during the era of the hippy trail, Samiuddin had formed a lasting friendship with Alan and Dr Dorothy Butt of St Ives in Sydney. Their friendship continued over the years through letters and cards. After displacement, however, finding a permanent home was difficult. A highly educated and experienced person can become, in the refugee system, little more than a number. Despite appeals and correspondence, progress was slow.

Then a small memory changed everything. The children’s mother remembered a cousin who had married a man in Australia named Isa, although contact had been lost. Samiuddin also had links to Sir Geoffrey Yeend, whom he had met through the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, and who was then a senior and influential figure in the Malcolm Fraser government. He also knew Alan and Dr Dorothy Butt in Australia.

Acting out of friendship, Alan Butt drove to Canberra and met with Sir Geoffrey Yeend to advocate for the Zhouand family. The government indicated that, if the cousin’s husband could be located, a visa pathway could be secured.

Armed only with the first name “Isa”, Mr Butt, an accountant by profession, became an investigator. Against all odds, he found him. The man was known as “Moey”, working at the local El Rancho Hotel in North Ryde, pouring cold beers only about ten kilometres down the road. The connection was made. The conditions were met. Refugee visas were granted. Through that chain of friendship, memory, advocacy and grace, the family reached Australia.

The migrant journey of resilience and quiet service

Migration reshapes a life. For the Zhouand family, fleeing Afghanistan meant leaving behind home, status, language, institutions and certainty. In Australia, Samiuddin’s achievements were not immediately recognised. A 1983 feature in The Canberra Times, titled “Temporary post for a jobless justice”, captured the painful reality of a former Afghan Chief Justice facing difficulty in having his qualifications and decades of legal experience recognised in a new country.

Before settling fully into Australian life, his journey of service also took him briefly to Sri Lanka, where he contributed quietly to international peace and human rights work. His later contribution to Patricia Hyndman’s LAWASIA report, The communal violence in Sri Lanka, July 1983, remains part of that record.

He had lost his courtroom and judicial robes, but he did not lose his purpose.

Rather than live in the shadow of what had been taken from him, he turned towards another kind of justice: community service. He worked in demanding roles, including corrective services and later child protection within the Department of Communities and Justice. It was heavy work, often with long commutes and little recognition. He did not complain. He never spoke of status. He just carried honour!

For Samiuddin, providing for his children and being present for his community mattered more than titles. He built a new life not around what he had been, but around what he could still give.

Community service

Alongside respected elders, Samiuddin was instrumental in establishing Sydney’s Blacktown Mosque and Community Centre. That work helped lay spiritual and social foundations for generations of Afghan and Muslim families in Western Sydney.

His weekends were rarely his own. He served continuously as a Justice of the Peace and as a respected community elder. Families came to him for advice, mediation, documents, guidance and help with problems that formal systems could not always understand. He spent Saturdays and Sundays assisting newly arrived refugees, settling disputes, guiding families and offering the kind of calm judgment that people trusted. Every word he spoke was wise ‘ I recall a time when a father worried about a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship was concerned about gossip, and Saifuddin’s stern words to her father were ‘do you want your child or an empty pride’. His authority did not come from a title. It came from service and reason.

He proved, again and again, that true standing is not measured by the office a person holds, but by the people who turn to him when they are afraid, confused or in need of help.

The Loya Jirga and a coin toss

After the fall of the Taliban regime and the election of Hamid Karzai’s administration, global elections were held in 2002 to select expatriate representatives for the Emergency Loya Jirga. The Loya Jirga is a traditional Afghan grand assembly, bringing together tribal elders, legal scholars and community leaders to resolve national questions and help shape a constitutional path forward.

Samiuddin’s name was put forward by the Australian Afghan community. The local election took place on a weeknight. There was poetry, long speeches, rigorous debate and intense community voting. After three rounds of voting, stretching towards 2:00 am, the result remained a dead heat between Samiuddin and another respected Afghan elder. Always practical, and with his familiar sense of humour, Samiuddin suggested they settle it by a coin toss.

He won and the difficult journey back to Afghanistan again, this time on cheap flights com

That coin toss gave him the mandate to represent his community. After his victory, one of his first calls was to seek guidance from a respected peer, the Honourable Justice Michael Kirby, whom he met from time to time. Massud remembers his father’s notes and writings following those meetings. Samiuddin intended to advocate for minority rights, including the rights of vulnerable and marginalised people. He was a Pashtun man, deeply seated in his faith and identity, but he never weaponised religion or power. Again and again, he chose service and protection.

A father’s pride

Samiuddin was shaped by Pashtun heritage, but his love for his children was never uncertain. In a culture where fathers can appear stern, his love showed itself through protection, fairness, pride and quiet devotion. He loved each child equally. Whatever the circumstance, he cared deeply, expressing affection in his own dignified and cultured way. He carried immense pride in the achievements of his children. He would speak of each child to the others, recounting their successes, strengths and brilliance. His pride was a unifying force. Each child knew they were respected and cherished in his eyes.

He did not need sentimental words to show love. His love was in his work, his sacrifice, his worry, his protection and his pride.

Business and enterprise

His daughter Luna carries that same resilience in her own life. Originally trained as an engineer, she rebuilt her path through determination, enterprise and hard work, becoming a successful business owner and community leader in her own right. Like her father, she has never measured success only by personal achievement. She has used her experience to support new arrivals, encourage families starting again in Australia, and help others find confidence, work, direction and belonging. In her business, community work and quiet guidance to others, Luna reflects the same values Samiuddin lived by: resilience without complaint, service without expectation, and success that is shared with the community.

Dr. Veda Zhouand Safi is a highly experienced General Practitioner currently practicing at Parramatta Healthcare in New South Wales. She holds a Doctor of Medicine (MD), a Diploma in Child Health (DCH), and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP).

Her medical career spans decades and continents, reflecting a deep dedication to healthcare and her community. After earning her MD from Kabul University in 1987 and working at Kabul’s Women’s Hospitals throughout the 1990s, she continued her medical journey in Australia. She served as a Medical Intern and Resident Medical Officer across several major Sydney hospitals—including Westmead, Blacktown, Mt Druitt, and Auburn—before achieving her RACGP fellowship in 2010.

Today, Dr. Zhouand Safi focuses her practice on areas where she can make a significant foundational impact, with special interests in women’s health, children’s health, and pregnancy shared care. Multilingual in English, Dari, Pashto, and Hazaragi, she is able to provide accessible and culturally sensitive care to a diverse patient demographic.

Dr. Veda Zhouand Safi, General Practitioner. Source: Parramatta Healthcare

International Legal Practioner

Zmarak was admitted as a legal practitioner in New South Wales, Australia, in 2001, and later admitted to the New York Bar in 2014. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New England and a Bachelor of Arts from SCU.

He leads the firm’s regulatory and commercial practice, guiding RTOs through complex ASQA compliance issues, audit responses, and sanction notices. His work includes handling Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) appeals and Federal Court judicial reviews, as well as managing corporate transactions like mergers and acquisitions.

Early in his career, he worked with leading Australian corporate law firms, including Henry Davis York and Gadens Lawyers, representing major national and international clients.

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, before moving to Australia in 1982, Zmarak has also worked internationally. In 2008, he returned to Afghanistan to serve as Senior Legal Counsel for the telecommunications company Roshan and its subsidiary M-Paisa. He later co-founded the law firm Satchu & Zhouand in 2011, providing corporate, tax, and regulatory advisory services for the Afghan market and working with international development finance institutions and government agencies.

Pubic Service

Samay Zhouand’s trajectory into public leadership is built on a foundation of deep-seated family legacy and rigorous legal expertise. Coming from a lineage where every child, grandchild, and great-grandchild has achieved remarkable outcomes, he chose to follow directly in his father’s footsteps by pursuing law. After completing his legal studies, Zhouand commenced his legal career with a Barristers Practicing Certificate in Queensland, before embarking onto Public Service.

This strong legal grounding served as the springboard for his transition into the public sector, launching a distinguished career that spans over two decades. Before stepping into his current roles as the Public Trustee of Queensland, CEO, and President of IPAA Queensland, he utilized his barrister’s acumen as the longest-serving Chief Inspector of Queensland Corrective Services. In that space, his legal expertise was instrumental in driving national-first transparency reforms. Today, his background in law continues to inform his transformative approach at the Public Trustee, where he champions supported decision-making and robust governance to protect and empower vulnerable Queenslanders.

Jack Zhouand actor, performer and musician, 

Jack already a published author when he was only 10 years old with Imprisonment at Ironfist: and other stories available through Amazon books has pursued performance, music and entertainment with the same confidence and willingness to serve others that Samiuddin encouraged in all his descendants. His public profile records work across theatre, commercials, presenting, comedy, children’s entertainment, music and performance. His credits include theatre and musical theatre, public campaigns, commercial work, presenting, comedy, and work as a singer, rapper and guitar player. His profile also records skills in acting, singing, acoustic guitar, comedy, modelling, hosting and screen performance.

Jack’s path shows another side of the Zhouand legacy. Not every contribution to the world is made from a courtroom, government office or formal institution. Some are made through performance, music, laughter, confidence and the ability to bring people together. Through his work, Jack carries forward the same family values in a different form: discipline, courage, public presence, humour, generosity and the willingness to stand before others and give something of himself. The family remain always proud.

Jack Zhouand – actor, performer and musician

Charaties and Community Service

The family carries Samiuddin’s humanitarian spirit forward through the Hope and Wish Foundation. As Baba would have wanted, the charity serves without bias, prejudice, clan, appearance, religion or background. Its purpose is simple: to help those in need, especially where people are vulnerable, unheard or misunderstood.

Much of the charity’s work involves advocating for minority groups, newly arrived migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and families seeking fair access to lawful pathways, protection, merit review and informed support. This work is not only about individual cases. It is also about ensuring that public policy recognises the real contribution migrants make to Australia’s economy, communities, culture and civic life.

The Foundation, and the family members who serve through it, make all reasonable efforts at every level to engage with government, policy makers, community organisations and public institutions. The aim is to encourage a fairer, more informed and more inclusive understanding of migration, and to ensure that migrants are not mischaracterised through fear, misinformation or political convenience.

A well-functioning migration system does not weaken a country. It strengthens it. It allows people who have suffered displacement, injustice or hardship to rebuild their lives, contribute with dignity, and repay the opportunity given to them through work, service, family and community.

That is the spirit in which this work continues. It reflects the kindness, grace and opportunity once offered to a desperate mother and her children on the road from Kabul to safety. It also reflects Samiuddin’s life-long belief that law and public institutions exist to protect human dignity, not to diminish it.

Hope and Wish Foundation: a registered ACNC charity where members of the Zhouand family continue to serve.

Paying it forward

Samiuddin Zhouand, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren continue to follow your footsteps. They do so in law, medicine, humanitarian work, business, education, Arts, community service and enterprise. Your teachings continue to shape each of us into better people.

For Massud, the memory of his father remain as:

Samiuddin was the nearest man I ever met to a perfect saint – a Muslim who loved like a Christian, walked like a Buddhist, forgave like Mandela, and lived like Gandhi.

Hope and Wish Foundation– a registered ACNC charity where some Zhouand family members continue to serve – demonstrates real work through their tireless community work. This image demonstrates 2023 arrivals being welcome into their Frist Australia Day Celebrations through pro bono work with Connect Australia Pty Ltd.

A Legacy of Fierce Independence: The Pashtun Trait

Samiuddin taught us that independence was a discipline. Children are encouraged from a young age to work, learn skills, manage their own money, play sport, accept responsibility and seek guidance from those who know more than us. That spirit is visible in another Sam, one of Samiuddin’s youngest grandchildren, Samir. At a young age, he is already a brown belt in kickboxing, a professional waiter at a high-end Japanese restaurant, a mountain biker and a young entrepreneur who has started small businesses in car washing, pet minding and lawn mowing.

Like many in our family, Samir is learning through work, effort, humility and experience. This is the life Samiuddin sacrificed for: future generations free to work, learn, serve, laugh, fish and live fully. This is what we we call learning to fish with the big fish.

Bibi Mazari Zhouand with Samir at work and play