• Latest
  • Trending
How wedding certificate, cell phone aided U.S. veteran’s wife escape from Afghanistan

How wedding certificate, cell phone aided U.S. veteran’s wife escape from Afghanistan

1 year ago
Adelabu condoles with Oyo residents over Chief Imam’s death

Adelabu condoles with Oyo residents over Chief Imam’s death

9 hours ago
Osun guber poll: After being deregistered by INEC, AD asks members, supporters to vote Oyetola

APC: Osun tribunal judgement represents victory for democracy, rule of law

14 hours ago
Why North won’t accept second position in 2023- Northern elders

Northern Elders warn against plan to interfere with elections, want review of CBN leadership

15 hours ago
Osun guber poll: After being deregistered by INEC, AD asks members, supporters to vote Oyetola

Folarin hails Osun tribunal judgement, congratulates Oyetola, APC

17 hours ago
Improper service stalls Adeleke’s suit challenging nullification as PDP governorship candidate

‘It’s miscarriage of justice’- Adeleke rejects tribunal verdict, heads to Appeal Court

18 hours ago
INEC announces date for mock accreditation of voters

INEC announces date for mock accreditation of voters

19 hours ago
CBN deadline: First Bank opens Saturday, Sunday to receive old naira notes

CBN deadline: First Bank opens Saturday, Sunday to receive old naira notes

19 hours ago
Osun guber poll: After being deregistered by INEC, AD asks members, supporters to vote Oyetola

BREAKING: Tribunal sacks Adeleke as Osun governor, declares Oyetola winner

20 hours ago
Nasarawa governor loses eldest son

Nasarawa governor loses eldest son

20 hours ago
Mike Bamiloye knocks Nollywood actors for romancing, kissing on movie sets

Mike Bamiloye knocks Nollywood actors for romancing, kissing on movie sets

20 hours ago
NCC CEO bags award for exemplary leadership in public service

Danbatta bags Vanguard’s Regulator of the Year Award

21 hours ago
Akeredolu to FG: Denying Amotekun arms while allowing equivalent in Katsina to bear weapons dangerous

Senator, Akeredolu’s aide trade words over Ondo factory sale

24 hours ago
It’ll be shameful for northern APC governors to work against Tinubu- Nasarawa gov

It’ll be shameful for northern APC governors to work against Tinubu- Nasarawa gov

1 day ago
#EndSARS: 1,993 inmates escaped from Edo custodial facilities, says FG

FG: 159 Nigerians renounce citizenship in 2022

2 days ago
Again, ICPC arrests ex-JAMB Registrar, Ojerinde

Again, ICPC arrests ex-JAMB Registrar, Ojerinde

2 days ago
Senator: Direct primary was Gbajabiamila’s idea to favour someone

Naira redesign: Gbajabiamila threatens Emefiele with arrest

2 days ago
Never again shall 16 years of nothingness come back- Tinubu hits PDP

Tinubu to Atiku: You can’t pitch me against Buhari

2 days ago
Fire guts four-storey building at Balogun market, destroys goods worth millions of naira

Fire guts four-storey building at Balogun market, destroys goods worth millions of naira

2 days ago
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Newspeakonline
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Technology
  • World
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
  • Opinion
  • Interview
  • Newspeak ExclusivesNew
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Technology
  • World
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Europe
  • Opinion
  • Interview
  • Newspeak ExclusivesNew
No Result
View All Result
Newspeak
UBA
Home World Middle East

How wedding certificate, cell phone aided U.S. veteran’s wife escape from Afghanistan

Akinwande Soji-Ojo by Akinwande Soji-Ojo
August 29, 2021
in Middle East
Reading Time: 5 mins read
245 15
0
How wedding certificate, cell phone aided U.S. veteran’s wife escape from Afghanistan
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on Telegram

Whipped by the Taliban and shoved from behind by other desperate Afghans, marriage certificate in hand, Sharifa Afzali thrust her cell phone at the U.S. soldier at the Kabul airport gate. On the other end was her husband, a U.S. Army veteran in Oklahoma.

RelatedPosts

‘Love has died’- Nollywood actor, Yomi Gold announces separation from wife

BREAKING: Nigerian comedian, Basketmouth, wife end 12 years marriage

Popular OAP, Do2dtun calls out Dbanj after wife files for divorce over alleged domestic violence

“I told her, ‘Hey, see if he’ll talk to me on the phone.’ I didn’t think he would do it, but he did,” said Hans Wright, who pleaded with the soldier to bend the rules for the visa-less woman he loves.

“And by the grace of God, he let my wife and my interpreter through,” Wright recounted to Reuters.

Afzali made it out of Afghanistan, counting herself among the lucky ones.

Unknown numbers of U.S.-affiliated families fearing Taliban retribution have been split up in the chaotic scramble for flights before the U.S. evacuation operation ends on Tuesday, said people involved in ad hoc networks racing to help extricate at-risk Afghans.

With U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration prioritising U.S. passport and green card holders, many streaming to the airport through Taliban checkpoints with Afghan families have faced an agonising choice- leave relatives behind or risk their own lives by staying.

“We have dealt with multiple cases of families that either have been separated or told that only the family members holding a blue (U.S.) passport or a green card are allowed through the gates,” Stacia George, a former USAID official said.

Some have had to leave children with U.S. citizenship rights with relatives, others managed to get children into the airport with family members who are Americans or green card holders, George said.

Joe McReynolds, another advocate for evacuees, said he has cataloged a dozen cases of Afghan-born active-duty U.S. military personnel or American veterans in the United States struggling to extract relatives with Special Immigration Visas or in the SIV process.

“If the U.S. soldier was there in Afghanistan, we probably could have gotten them through,” he said, adding he knows of only one case succeeding. He declined to provide details, citing safety concerns.

Afzali’s escape was aided by her determination, luck, her husband, their marriage certificate, and her SIV application.

Critical help also came from Ashley Sogge, a former U.S. Army special operations officer who believes an email she sent to White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, proved crucial for getting Afzali on a list at Kabul airport.

“It is a good news story. But unfortunately, nothing that is replicable.It was truly ad hoc,”Sogge told Reuters

Asked for comment, Psaki said those responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives were the men and women of the military, the national security and State Department teams on the ground in Kabul.

COACHING, CAJOLING FROM AFAR

Wright, of Grove, Oklahoma, retired in 2009 as a first sergeant after 24 years of service, and began working as a contractor advising Afghan special forces.

He met Afzali, who was working for the contracting company, in 2017. When he switched jobs in 2019, she went to work as an interpreter, but in a different location.

“Our relationship grows by text, email, Facebook,” he said.

They flew in April to Dubai to wed, but a judge in Utah had to marry them in an online ceremony. The United Arab Emirates, Wright said, would not give them the paperwork “because I am a Christian and she is a Muslim.”

Their marriage certificate is signed by Utah’s lieutenant governor.

“It was really cool,” he said.

But their wedding did not clear away one bureaucratic roadblock; Afzali could not apply for a U.S. spousal visa because she already had an SIV application in process since 2018, he said.

Wright left Afghanistan in May hoping Afzali’s visa would be approved. But then came the Taliban’s rapid takeover and the bedlam of tens of thousands of people clamouring for flights out of Kabul.

“Over these last two weeks, I couldn’t go to sleep.A lot of my nights were spent talking back and forth to the (U.S.) military, to the Afghan military liaison,”Wright recalled of his first efforts to evacuate his wife.

Sogge was connected last Monday to Wright by a U.S. service member who saw one of her Instagram posts offering to help extricate people.

She worked the phones and ad hoc evacuation networks, emailed pictures of Afzali’s documents and what she would be wearing to contacts inside the airport and tracked the situation outside through her networks in near-real time.

She urged Wright to contact Congress members, and then last Tuesday told him to tell his wife to head for the airport. He and Sogge maintained contact with her by phone and text.

Afzali and the interpreter set out around 8pm. It took them some 16 hours in sweltering heat to reach a gate, Afzali flogged by Taliban fighters’ canes.

U.S. soldiers told the pair to go to a different gate.

“She suffered some injuries from some of the beatings. There was pushing and shoving by the crowd. I told her not to give up,” Wright said.

She reached a second gate. But U.S. troops again refused to allow her through because Afzali’s visa was not yet approved.

Sogge urged Afzali by text to persist as she advised Wright how Afzali should address the soldiers.

“I basically coached him;what to tell her to say at the gate, and to emphasise that she was the lawful spouse of a service member and an American citizen and she had her marriage certificate. I was like, ‘That probably needs to be up front,’ and that she’s a pending SIV case,” Sogge said.

She told Wright to tell his wife to “be polite, be persistent.”

That is when Wright urged Afzali to hand her phone to the American soldier.

Once the pair were safely inside, Sogge arranged for Afzali and the interpreter to board a flight. At that point, according to Wright, her destination was unknown.

“She called me this morning.She’s in Germany,” he said on Friday.

Related

What’s your Reaction?
Like
Like
0
Dislike
Dislike
0
Laugh
Laugh
0
Angry
Angry
0
Sad
Sad
0
Accurate
Accurate
0
0 Shares
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Linkedin Messenger
×

Share this post!

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Linkedin Messenger Telegram Tumblr
Tags: AfghanistanU.S.Wife

Recent Posts

Ex-British Prime Minister, David Cameron lands teaching job at Abu Dhabi university

Ex-British Prime Minister, David Cameron lands teaching job at Abu Dhabi university

December 17, 2022
US kills Al-Qaeda leader, Zawahiri in drone strike

US kills Al-Qaeda leader, Zawahiri in drone strike

August 2, 2022
Dubai becomes world’s first paperless government

Dubai becomes world’s first paperless government

December 20, 2021
New Taliban Chancellor bars women from Afghan university

New Taliban Chancellor bars women from Afghan university

September 28, 2021
Taliban bans barbers from shaving beards, playing music

Taliban bans barbers from shaving beards, playing music

September 27, 2021
Taliban gives condition for  Afghan women to study at universities

Taliban gives condition for Afghan women to study at universities

September 12, 2021
UPDATED: After seizing power, Taliban renames Afghanistan

Taliban gives condition to form new government in Afghanistan

August 23, 2021
UPDATED: After seizing power, Taliban renames Afghanistan

How we’ll govern Afghanistan – Taliban

August 17, 2021
Next Post
Attack on police command, correctional facility in Imo act of terrorism-Buhari

Buhari: How not to fail, By Festus Adedayo 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Newspeakonline

© 2020 Newspeak & Associates
Optimized by IChannelTech.

Navigate Site

  • Breaking News
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Interview
  • Newpeak Magazine
  • Newspeak Exclusives
  • Politics

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Technology
  • World
  • Opinion
  • Interview
  • Newspeak Exclusives

© 2020 Newspeak & Associates
Optimized by IChannelTech.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Newspeak We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
Dismiss
Allow Notifications