This is the sixth installment in a Washington Examiner series detailing the struggles of Afghan activists and allies affected by the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
After Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last August, Mirwais’s life became very hard (his name has been changed to protect his identity).
News stories of murders and sounds of gunfire kept Mirwais, his wife, and his two young children sleepless for days. Because of their unfamiliarity with the Taliban’s rules, Mirwais said his family members were beaten for their clothing, their beards, and other menial matters when they dared to leave the house. Sometimes, the family ran out of food for days at a time. Because of bank closures, Mirwais had to ask his oldest sister, a U.S. citizen, to cover the family’s rent. Eventually, Mirwais said, “All the pressures came together, and we were waiting for a knock on our door and preparing to die.”
Amid the frenzy, Mirwais applied for a Special Immigrant Visa on Aug. 17, citing the 14 years he spent working for prestigious U.S. and international organizations, supporting U.S. law enforcement efforts, and overseeing national elections. He contacted U.S. congressmen and senators, begging them to intervene to save his family, but he received no assistance.
As months passed, the Taliban sent Mirwais several warning letters. Mirwais was more concerned that the Taliban had access to the machines where his biometric data were stored. He told me the Taliban located and murdered two of his colleagues using biometric equipment. With each month that passed, he “was waiting every minute for [his] turn to be killed,” Mirwais explained.
A lucky break came when a former colleague submitted Mirwais for a Priority 2 referral to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. On Dec. 1, around 11 days before all evacuation flights out of Afghanistan were suspended, Mirwais, his wife, and his two children were evacuated to Qatar and transported to Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Unfortunately, Mirwais’s parents and his sister Tahira (whose name has been changed to protect her identity), remain stuck in Afghanistan. Tahira is at particular risk. She has the dangerous distinction of being a graduate of the American University of Afghanistan. But Tahira was also a civil society activist. She spoke out in favor of freedom of speech, traveled throughout Afghanistan to promote women’s empowerment, and volunteered with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Like her brother, Tahira now receives warnings from the Taliban.
Several months ago, Mirwais’ oldest sister petitioned for her parents and Tahira to come to the U.S. as lawful permanent residents. Though they quickly cleared the largest hurdles of the family visa sponsorship process, the backlog for his parents’ visa may be longer than a year. Mirwais was dismayed to learn that Tahira, as an F4 sibling visa applicant, will be forced to wait far longer. A Department of State spokesman confirmed to me that the wait for F4 processing is in excess of 14 years. More than 2,240,000 individuals await visas, and only 65,000 visas are issued annually.
Tahira’s parents will not leave Afghanistan without her. Funds are already exceedingly low. Like all Afghan women, Tahira and her mother cannot safely leave the house without a male relative, but Tahira’s father is ill and cannot walk long distances.
Though Mirwais’s family has left Fort Dix and is making a life in Virginia, he cannot relax knowing the risk for Tahira, especially as the Taliban have openly targeted female activists in the past few weeks. “Nobody can wait 14 days in this monster’s regime, and we have to wait …14 years,” Mirwais laments. He has begun to “prepare [himself] to accept that [he] could no longer see them anymore.”
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area. She is a volunteer with evacuation group Operation 620, which is assisting Tahira and her parents.
