Holiday traditions were meant to be shared, passed down through generations working side-by-side in the kitchen or sharing stories around the living room. But for one group of Afghan women who have resettled in California—many of whom have been separated from their family for years—new memories are being created with friends who understand the complex joy and sadness of celebrating far from home. For Meghan Markle, it’s about empowering these women through a community that celebrates both their heritage and their fresh beginnings.
It’s a Saturday night in Venice Beach, California, and I’m sitting across the table from the Duchess of Sussex as we share dinner with the women of Mina’s List, an organization that empowers women in the fields of politics and human rights, and the Southern California chapter of the Archewell Foundation’s Welcome Project.
Launched in 2023, the initiative was created by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s foundation to support programs for women who have resettled in the United States from Afghanistan. There are currently 11 Welcome Project branches in nine states across the country, including one in San Antonio, which Prince Harry and Meghan visited in March.
The duchess met many of the women here in Venice Beach during a cooking event in February, and I’m struck by the easy conversation they share as dishes are passed around the lantern-lit tables in the garden at Our Place, a woman- and immigrant-owned cookware company. We dig into mouth-watering Middle Eastern-inspired dishes created by Soho House chef Shane Fatemian—himself an Iranian immigrant—as stories are shared and poetry is read. Connection is a common theme throughout the night.
“From my standpoint, I think part of why we wanted to make sure we had this opportunity to all be together again—so many of us—right now is that as the holidays come up, and have already begun in many regards, it brings up so much emotion for people,” the duchess tells the group.
“You miss home, you miss your country, and also can find comfort in the new community that you have here,” she continues, adding, “I’m grateful that we are able to be a part of that community.”
The Duchess of Sussex, dressed in her signature neutrals, checks in with each woman at our table, following up on conversations they had earlier this year when she joined the group to cook traditional Afghan food. Like her husband, Prince Harry, she possesses the gift of not only making everyone in the room feel instantly comfortable, but also valued—and working in this business, I can assure you that is no small feat.
When two of the dinner guests stand up to read beautiful poetry full of hope and sadness—pieces written by a Mina's List staffer and a Welcome Project member as part of their storytelling project—the duchess is visibly moved. “All of you have stories to tell, and the power of you telling them and sharing them with each other—with our broader community—is what will help propel the change that I think we all dream of that you see and hear in the poems that we just listened to,” she says.
Following the collapse of the Afghan government, Mina’s List has helped evacuate and resettle more than 2,000 women leaders through independent and coalition efforts. Its executive director, Teresa Casale, tells me that the organization had never done work within the United States before, but applied to become part of the Welcome Project after hearing about Archewell's efforts. "It was the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to partner in that way," she says.
The women I meet at Our Place share similar backgrounds in social activism, and with many having worked in government and journalism back home, there’s an increased feeling of isolation when that sense of purpose has been taken away. These highly accomplished individuals also have the added trauma of watching decades of their progress in women’s rights be erased.
The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan continues to be dire, with females largely prevented from accessing jobs, education or even leaving their home without a male escort. According to a UN Women survey from August 2024, 99 percent of women the organization surveyed “felt they had limited or zero influence on decision making in their communities.” Yet in California, new paths begin.
One woman tells me of how after arriving in the States in the wake of 9/11, she was able to teach soldiers vital language skills before they went off to the Middle East. Another speaks of helping newly resettled families set up email addresses, handle paperwork and find housing amid the extraordinarily expensive California real estate market.
Thanks to Mina’s List and the Welcome Project, they’ve found a small piece of home, with one attendee sharing her first get-together with the group gave her “a lovely feeling that I’ll never forget.”
The Duchess of Sussex tells me that The Welcome Project “is that perfect example of seeing an immediate need and then saying, ‘Okay, how do you make this a much larger vision so it’s not just a short-term banding on a problem, but a long-term solution?’”
She shares that it was rewarding to see women “on the other side of what has been a really hard time for many of them, more than most can imagine.” We talk about one of our tablemates who’d just recently been reunited with her mother after successfully moving her over from Afghanistan, and another who’d been separated from her son for years, stories the duchess says touched her on a personal level. “As a mom, can you imagine not being able to see your child?” she asks.
As for communities coming together to welcome their new neighbors, the Duchess of Sussex says, “whatever cultures are different, whatever traditions are different, there’s actually so much we have in common.”
“There’s a lot of joy in discovering each other’s new rituals too,” she says, a feeling many of us in the room experienced as we tried new foods and listened to the aforementioned poetry. Even though some of us don’t understand the language, the duchess notes that she feels the emotion behind their words as she listens to their hopes for a better future.
“You find comfort in things you know, but you find so much community and connection in things you don’t know, as well,” the duchess shares. She understands this feeling well from her time working with the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen in London, a group that found solace together in the wake of the tragic 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.
The women, along with the duchess, banded together to create Together: Our Community Cookbook, which was published in 2018. Archewell’s co-executive director, Shauna Nep, references the Hubb group during her welcome remarks at the dinner—a surprise to the duchess, who later notes how touched she was by Nep’s words. “I just remember thinking, wow, she gets it,” Nep says of Meghan's work with the community kitchen. “They get it, the power of women coming together. From that moment on, I thought to myself, ‘One day I want to be part of something like this that is bringing women together.’”
“With Hubb, that was 13 different countries represented,” the Duchess of Sussex tells me. “We were constantly learning from each other.” She says that while some of the foods she’s used to eating were “very different” to the women in the kitchen, they “loved being able to talk about that.”
“It’s a great icebreaker,” the duchess adds. “And then through that, it kind of becomes the background to a much deeper connection.” She points out that some other groups use activities like sewing or playing board games versus cooking, but that those things form bonds focused on “what actually matters.”
As for the women of the Southern California Welcome Project, Meghan tells me she admires their resilience. “For so many of them it would be very easy to go, ‘My life has ended, because everything I knew that I was familiar with is gone,” the Duchess of Sussex says. “But these moments of togetherness that they have with each other and the Welcome Project, I hope, reminds them that no, your life is just beginning. It’s a very, very different chapter. It’s the beginning of something where you’ve taken steps that you never thought you would.”
With the holidays coming up, the talk turns to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet and the traditions that the duchess holds special. I admit that my son no longer believes in Santa, and we commiserate over the Christmas magic that seems ever so fleeting.
“I love the holidays,” the Duchess of Sussex says, sharing that Archie and Lilibet are now “three and five, so every year it gets better.”
She muses that “at first, I think as a mom with children you’re just enjoying having them there, but they’re not understanding everything that’s happening yet. But now we’re at the age where I just can’t wait to see it through their lens every year.”
As for Thanksgiving, she says that the Sussexes are “always pretty low-key,” and Meghan tells me that “being close to my mom is great,” referring to her mother, Doria, who is also based in California.
“I was thinking about, in the past few years of having Thanksgiving here, like many of us, I think you always make sure there’s room at the table for your friends who don’t have family, which is really key,” she shares. One such friend is none other than feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who Markle tells me “came for Thanksgiving” one year.
It turns out that for the Sussexes, the holiday looks—minus Gloria Steinem, perhaps—just like most any American Thanksgiving dinner. “We’re always making sure we have something fun to do,” the Duchess of Sussex says. “Like any other family you spend time having a great meal and then what do you do? Play games, all the same stuff, someone brings a guitar—fun.”
“Every single holiday is a new adventure,” she says, stressing that it’s important for her that Archie and Lilibet can experience the “magic” of traditions like “great recipes that they end up connecting to a formative memory” at Thanksgiving and putting out “carrots for the reindeer" at Christmas.
The women of Mina’s List dance, chat and clap around us as our chat wraps up. Markle, one later shares with me, is “a center of energy.” The attendee says that while she followed the Duchess of Sussex’s wedding and career through the years, she never expected the duchess to be “so cool, so humble,” adding, “She cares what happens to us, this is important.”
I watch on as pictures are taken and laughs and smiles are exchanged. We chat about the beautiful cookware the women have selected from the store, gifted by owner Shiza Shahid. In one sweet moment, the duchess poses with a baby girl who has been snoozing away in her mother’s carrier all night.
Soon enough it’s time to say goodbye. Before we go, I ask the duchess what Americans can do to help women like the ones we met feel more at home here. Her answer is simple. “It’s really easy. Just think about how you’d want someone to treat you…how would you want someone to open their arms to you?”
