======================================================================== ATTA ARGHANDIWAL — MEDIA KIT Author · Speaker · Humanitarian · Mentor attamoves.com ======================================================================== One plain-text file containing approved biographies for Atta Arghandiwal and Sohrab Rasouli, both current books with their descriptions, the exact recognition wording, the four topics, the verified appearance links, direct press-download addresses, and both contact addresses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ATTA ARGHANDIWAL — BIOGRAPHIES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION (one sentence) Atta Arghandiwal is an Afghan American author, speaker, humanitarian, and mentor whose work connects memory, dignity, self-sufficiency, and responsible use of new tools. BRIEF (one paragraph) Atta Arghandiwal is an Afghan American author, speaker, humanitarian, and mentor. After leaving Afghanistan and living as a refugee in Germany, he arrived in the United States in December 1981 with basic English and $10. He began as a bank teller and built a 29-year career in banking. His books and talks explore memory, dignity, responsibility, and the practical work of starting again. SHORT (about 100 words) Atta Arghandiwal is an Afghan American author, speaker, humanitarian, and mentor. Born in Kabul, he served in the Afghan Air Force before leaving Afghanistan in August 1980 following the political rupture of the late 1970s and the Soviet invasion. After living as a refugee in Germany, he arrived in the United States in December 1981 with basic English and $10. He began as a bank teller and built a 29-year banking career, rising to Senior Vice President and Regional Manager. His work connects memory, dignity, self-sufficiency, and responsible use of new tools. FULL Atta Arghandiwal is an Afghan American author, speaker, humanitarian, and mentor whose work is rooted in a life rebuilt across countries, languages, and institutions. Born in Kabul, Atta served in the Afghan Air Force and worked in public relations and sales at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Kabul. He left Afghanistan in August 1980 after the political rupture that followed the 1978 coup and the Soviet invasion. After living as a refugee in Germany, he arrived in the United States in December 1981 with basic English and $10. Atta began his American working life as a bank teller. Over the next 29 years, he built a career in banking and rose to Senior Vice President and Regional Manager. That experience—beginning again, learning unfamiliar systems, earning trust, supporting a family, and accepting responsibility—became part of the foundation for his writing and community work. His books include Lost Decency: The Gilded Cages and the Search for Home and The Self-Sufficient Immigrant in the Age of AI: A Field Manual for the Work of Standing Again, co-authored with Sohrab Rasouli. Across memoir, public conversation, and practical guidance, Atta examines Afghanistan, exile, moral memory, work, family stability, self-sufficiency, and the dignity of rebuilding a life. Today, Atta writes and speaks for readers, universities, libraries, cultural institutions, immigrant-serving organizations, and communities seeking a serious conversation about memory, responsibility, and human judgment in a changing world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SOHRAB RASOULI — BIOGRAPHIES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION (one sentence) Sohrab Rasouli is an Afghan immigrant, educator, and co-author of The Self-Sufficient Immigrant in the Age of AI, and the founder of Noura, an artificial-intelligence project for employment-support teams. BRIEF (one paragraph) Sohrab Rasouli is an Afghan immigrant, educator, and co-author of The Self-Sufficient Immigrant in the Age of AI. He left home young, crossed borders alone, and rebuilt more than once in more than one country. Before working with artificial intelligence he took the jobs that teach the body what restarting costs, then served newcomers directly as an employment specialist. He is the founder of Noura, an artificial-intelligence project for employment-support teams. SHORT (about 100 words) Sohrab Rasouli is an Afghan immigrant, educator, and co-author of The Self-Sufficient Immigrant in the Age of AI. He left home young, crossed borders alone, and rebuilt more than once in more than one country. Before working with artificial intelligence he took the jobs that teach the body what restarting costs, and he went on to serve newcomers directly as an employment specialist, helping people prepare for work and move through the early pressure of starting again. He is the founder of Noura, an artificial-intelligence project for employment-support teams, and he co-leads the AI Self-Sufficiency Lab with Atta Arghandiwal. FULL Sohrab Rasouli is an Afghan immigrant, educator, and co-author of The Self-Sufficient Immigrant in the Age of AI: A Field Manual for the Work of Standing Again. He belongs to a later wave of Afghan displacement than his co-author. He left home young, crossed borders alone, and rebuilt his life more than once, in more than one country. Before working with artificial intelligence he took the jobs that teach the body what restarting costs. He went on to serve newcomers directly as an employment specialist, helping people prepare for work, understand unfamiliar systems, and move through the early pressure of starting again. Two things he learned in that work run through the book: there is a distance between ability and access, and proof usually has to be rebuilt before a door will open. Sohrab is the founder of Noura, an artificial-intelligence project for employment-support teams serving newcomers, built on one discipline: technology should help deeply, but it must never replace human judgment. He co-leads the AI Self-Sufficiency Lab with Atta Arghandiwal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CURRENT BOOKS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE SELF-SUFFICIENT IMMIGRANT IN THE AGE OF AI A Field Manual for the Work of Standing Again Atta Arghandiwal and Sohrab Rasouli This practical field manual is written for immigrants, refugees, restarting families, and the people who serve beside them. It connects the work of building stability with the realities of an AI-shaped economy. AI is presented as a tool for preparation, comparison, drafting, translation, learning, and organization—not as an authority. The reader remains responsible for privacy, verification, consequential decisions, and the human meaning of the work. Buy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H96F1K6Q LOST DECENCY: THE GILDED CAGES AND THE SEARCH FOR HOME Atta Arghandiwal A work of memory, exile, and moral history, Lost Decency connects Afghanistan's political rupture with its human cost. Through family memory, displacement, and the search for home, Atta asks what people carry when a country changes around them—and what dignity and responsibility can preserve after familiar structures are gone. Recognition (use exactly this wording): A 2012 Foreword INDIES finalist in Autobiography & Memoir and a 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award finalist for the Bill Fisher Best First Book—Nonfiction. Buy: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Decency-Gilded-Cages-Search/dp/B0GYRKYNJW/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERVIEW AND SPEAKING TOPICS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ These are the same four subjects he speaks on publicly, in the wording approved for use. 01. Immigrant Self-Sufficiency in the Age of AI AI can help newcomers translate, compare options, prepare questions, organize information, and draft a first version—but it can also create false confidence, expose private information, and produce convincing errors. Drawing from his lived experience and the new book co-authored with Sohrab Rasouli, Atta explores how immigrants, families, and the people who support them can use new tools without surrendering privacy, responsibility, or human judgment. 02. Afghanistan, Memory, and Moral Loss Atta offers a lived account of Afghanistan before and after political rupture, and of the human consequences that continue long after public attention moves on. He connects national events with family memory, displacement, exile, and the difficult responsibility to tell the truth without turning suffering into spectacle. The conversation invites audiences to consider what history costs ordinary people and what memory asks of those who survive it. 03. Dignity, Work, and Rebuilding a Life Atta arrived in the United States in December 1981 with basic English and $10, began as a bank teller, and built a 29-year banking career that led to Senior Vice President and Regional Manager. This talk is not a promise that every path looks the same. It is an honest account of learning unfamiliar systems, earning trust, accepting responsibility, supporting a family, and preserving dignity while beginning again. 04. From Survival to Responsibility Survival is urgent, but it cannot be the final plan. Atta examines the shift from immediate crisis toward responsibility, structure, family stability, and long-term participation in a community. He speaks honestly about receiving help, learning systems, making difficult choices, and refusing to disappear inside dependence or shame. The conversation centers dignity: not isolation, not perfection, but the ability to take the next responsible step. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PUBLIC APPEARANCES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ These are recordings published by the platforms that hosted them. Nothing here is a testimonial, an endorsement, or a claim about audience size. C-SPAN — Afghanistan: Past, Present, and Future (Public event) https://bit.ly/3ZZKAzV Commonwealth Club — Ending America's Forever War (Talk) https://bit.ly/3NIO9F2 Commonwealth Club Podcast — HALO Trust Conversation (Podcast) https://bit.ly/4tu32xf YouTube — Daud Siddiqi Interview (Interview) https://bit.ly/3Pf8eDu Facebook Live — Facebook Live — Afghanistan Conversation (Talk) https://bit.ly/3ZXrs6T YouTube — Anisa Shahid Interview (Interview) https://bit.ly/4fjYa7k X — VOA Ashna Clip (Interview) https://bit.ly/4e6Cpqt TikTok — GNR TikTok Interview (Interview) https://bit.ly/4j7iSKm YouTube — Immigrant Success Planning — Launch (Book video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6VYxCj1VyQ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRESS DOWNLOADS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The two press portraits below are approved for download and use in coverage of the books or speaking appearances. The family and archival photographs elsewhere on this site are different: their reuse rights were never recorded, so they are not offered for download. PHOTOGRAPH: Primary press headshot https://attamoves.com/media-kit/downloads/atta-arghandiwal-press-primary.jpg Credit: Photograph courtesy of Atta Arghandiwal. Free to use in coverage of the books or speaking appearances. PHOTOGRAPH: Alternate press headshot https://attamoves.com/media-kit/downloads/atta-arghandiwal-press-alternate.jpg Credit: Photograph courtesy of Atta Arghandiwal. Free to use in coverage of the books or speaking appearances. BOOK COVER: The Self-Sufficient Immigrant in the Age of AI https://attamoves.com/media-kit/downloads/self-sufficient-immigrant-age-of-ai-cover.png BOOK COVER: Lost Decency: The Gilded Cages and the Search for Home https://attamoves.com/media-kit/downloads/lost-decency-gilded-cages-cover.jpg Only these two portraits and two current covers are cleared in this block. Family and archival photographs elsewhere on the site are not press-use assets because their reuse rights were never recorded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT THIS KIT DOES NOT CONTAIN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Unapproved family or archival photography, logos, or brand marks - Testimonials, quotations, or endorsements - Fees, availability, or audience numbers ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTACT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Primary: atta@attamoves.com Backup: attamoves@gmail.com After you send the email, Atta reviews it personally. Nothing is acknowledged or confirmed automatically. ======================================================================== © 2026 Atta Arghandiwal. All rights reserved. ========================================================================