She fought the Taliban alongside US troops, but her future in the US remains in limbo

When the four Muradian sisters and their younger brother landed in Phoenix in January after spending the frigid winter in Wisconsin, they immediately felt comforted by the Arizona sun and the desert landscape.

By the time they arrived in Arizona, they already had spent four months living at a military base in the United States after leaving their home in Afghanistan in a hurry when the U.S. military pulled out last year.

The warm winter weather in Phoenix contrasted with the snow they left behind in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. As they stepped off the plane in their new home, the desert mountains surrounding the city immediately reminded them of jagged peaks and desert back home.

"It was really amazing the first day I came here, I mean, when I saw the features, 'Oh, it's exactly like Kabul,'" Razia, the eldest of the sisters, recalled.

The five Muridian siblings uprooted their lives in Kabul when it became clear Afghanistan would fall to the hands of the Taliban after U.S. forces withdrew from the country in August 2021, leaving thousands of Afghans that had been working with Americans scrambling to find a way out.

Fatima, the second oldest of the five, was a member of the Female Tactical Platoon, a special division of the Afghan armed forces that worked alongside the U.S. military to fight the Taliban.

But with the U.S. withdrawal imminent and Taliban quickly advancing on the capital, that placed a target on her head. In the months leading to the takeover of the country, Taliban soldiers sought and killed Afghans they suspected of helping or working with U.S. troops.

Not only that, but Fatima and her family are also members of the Hazara, a long-persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan that suffered immense cruelty during previous Taliban rule, before the start of the U.S. invasion. That made them especially vulnerable as the Taliban regained power.

"If you are Hazara it's a kind of crime, everyone will hit you everywhere, because we are in the minority," said Basira, the youngest of the siblings, who was 17 when the family fled.

But getting out of Afghanistan and to Phoenix was not easy. They narrowly made it out, days after the Taliban finally seized control of Kabul. The Muradian siblings were among the last Afghans to leave the country during the U.S. military operation to evacuate thousands of allies.

Since arriving in Phoenix in January, the Muradian siblings have faced many challenges in adapting to their lives in the United States. It's a position that more than 85,000 other Afghans resettled in the U.S. during the past year continue to navigate to this day.

The main concern for Afghan evacuees and the people helping them in their transition is whether they will be able to remain legally in the country where they have sought refuge, as violence continues to spiral in Afghanistan and few see any option of of returning there anytime soon.

During what it dubbed Operation Allies Welcome, the U.S. government evacuated about 85,000 Afghans and transported them to the United States. About 12,000 of them already had legal status, including citizens, permanent residents or special visa holders.

The remaining 73,000, including the Muradian siblings, were admitted to the U.S. under humanitarian parole. That granted them temporary legal status for two years, with the ability to work in the country.

But it does not include a pathway to citizenship. So a year from now, when temporary parole status begins to expire, Afghans resettled in the United States may be left with some tough choices to make.

"They either have to leave the country or they have to apply and go through the asylum system, which we know has a huge, huge backlog and is a mess right now," said Nejra Sumic, the national field manager for We Are All America, a collective of refugee aid organizers working to assist Afghans.

"There is no federal resolution to what is going to happen to all of these individuals," she said.

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Luck, effort, coordination and timing

Initially, the Muradian siblings did not know if they would make it out of Afghanistan.

It took the activism of U.S. soldiers working with the platoon, the coordination of community members around the U.S. who mobilized to help, intervention from a U.S. congressman, and lots of good timing.

Rebecca Monaco, a U.S. Army officer deployed to Afghanistan who had the chance to work alongside the Female Tactical Platoon soldiers, said she started getting calls from some of them to help fill out visa paperwork when it became clear the U.S. military would withdraw from the country.

She started calling other soldiers she was deployed with and began organizing efforts to assist the Afghan women they had worked with, even though there was no special visa category for them. Special visas were mostly reserved for interpreters, not for Afghan soldiers working alongside Americans.

"And then when the embassy fell in Kabul, we kind of understood that it was a pretty big emergency and more of the women started reaching out," Monaco said. "And that's kind of when we started really going into full evacuation mode."

The Taliban advanced quickly, taking over large portions of the country, eventually taking Kabul as well. U.S. forces with the 82nd Airborne Division held their ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport, where they evacuated soldiers, U.S. citizens and Afghans who had worked with Americans.

Fatima and her family went into hiding in Kabul after the U.S. military evacuated Camp Scorpion, a facility used to train the Female Tactical Platoon, located outside the capital city.

Monaco said getting the platoon soldiers out of the country became the top priority for them, and the urgency intensified as they raced against the clock before the remaining U.S. soldiers left.

"They especially were targeted because not only were they females in a very Islamic fundamentalist society doing a male oriented role, but they also were well known for working alongside Americans," she said.

As the last U.S. stronghold against the advancing Taliban, Hamid Karzai International Airport became a scene of desperation. Hundreds of people packed the gates leading to the airport. U.S. soldiers were checking documents to allow people inside.

The Muradian siblings made seven attempts to reach the airport. Bill Richardson was coordinating efforts to help them out. His daughter also served in Afghanistan alongside the platoon soldiers.

"They could bring their phone, they could bring their passport. Everything else, anything they would identify them having been in the military, would cost them," Richardson remembers saying. "And then I told them, my people, my group, they needed to hide their phone and their passport in their underwear so that the Taliban wouldn't touch them."

On one occasion, they made it inside the airport gates, only to be pushed back out. Translating for her sisters, Basira, the youngest of the siblings, said they witnessed terrible things on the way and once they got the airport gates.

"Those times that we came, it was always pushing, pushing pushing. Every time, we pushed through to come near to the airport. It was so hard," Basira said. "First of all, that pushing was so hard. And second is that the weather is so hot. And also the Taliban were in the back with people. They were hitting people, beating people."

Razia said the scenes of death, suffering and desperation outside the airport continue to haunt her and give her nightmares.

On their last attempt, the Muradian sisters made their way to the airport gate with the husband of another soldier. But the scene was so chaotic, it made it more difficult to get them past the gate.

They had been in communication with Richardson. He said the group was trying to contact anyone within 82nd Airborne Division that they knew, trying to talk to any solider on the ground who would be able to let them in.

"So it was it was the soldiers from the cultural support team here and their contacts contacting people they knew on the ground, either in the Army or the Marine Corps, the Air Force, at the airport saying, 'Hey, we need Fatima.' And so then they literally went out into the crowd and gave them passwords," he said.

Basira said the U.S. soldiers found them, took their hands and then got them inside the airport. Another soldier took them to the terminal, they got a wristband and waited to board a C-17 plane that would be packed with other Afghans.

They left behind a worsening situation at the airport. Their mother and two other sisters also stayed behind in Afghanistan.

On the last days of evacuation, a suicide bomber struck the airport, killing at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. soldiers. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. Razia said she wonders if any of the soldiers who helped them get inside the airport were among those killed.

The C-17 transported the Muradian siblings to Dubai, and then to Qatar in the Persian Gulf. In the span of about two weeks, they would end up in Germany, where the group of U.S. soldiers coordinated to provide them with clean clothes. They also pressed anyone they could reach at the military and in Congress to help speed up the process to them to the United States.

U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said the team in his office worked day and night to help with more than 100 cases to help evacuees, including those in the Female Tactical Platoon, get out of Afghanistan and to the U.S.

"There was such a lack of information, you know, a lack of clarity about what is the process that you would follow to help the forces of other Afghanis that had helped the American effort in Afghanistan," Stanton said.

His office worked through officials channels at the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies to move the process along, while also reaching out to anyone on the ground to help facilitate the evacuation.

"My staff was working with military officials there, their family members, their spouses that might be near where the the FTP's were located to try to help out and and to do things that would be to make sure nature was clear that these women were at particular risk and needed particular attention and help," he said.

After nearly two months in Germany, the Muradian siblings were able to board a plane for the U.S. They were transported to Fort McCoy in Wiscon, one of eight military bases designated as "safe havens" for newly arrived Afghans.

They spent over four months at the base. They were unable to leave, but filled a series of requirements, including medical screenings and immigration processing. While at the base, they also began to work with the International Rescue Committee to help them resettle in Arizona.

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Afghans settle in Phoenix, Glendale and Tucson

More than 2,000 Afghans have resettled in Arizona so far in 2022, according to the state's Refugee Resettlement Program. Most of them live in three cities: Phoenix, Glendale or Tucson.

Most of them were admitted under humanitarian parole and given a two-year permit to live and work in the country. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that oversees immigration paperwork, expedited the work permits so that Afghans could receive them before they arrived at the cities where they would be resettled.

Because parole grants only temporary status, it also has more limited access to resources than individuals with other types of permanent or longer-term legal status. But advocates say resettled Afghans, like refugees or asylees, also require lots of assistance to ease their transition to life in the U.S.

"So, people who are the most vulnerable, these are the ones who are being placed in these communities," Sumic with We Are All America, said. "And so I tell people to reflect on that. They are really the ones in the biggest need."

When Afghans fist began arriving in the U.S., resettlement agencies struggled initially to meet the overwhelming need for assistance because the refugee program had been slashed to its lowest levels ever under former President Donald Trump.

To help in their transition, the U.S. government under President Joe Biden came up with the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program, which provides help for individuals admitted under humanitarian parole through March 2023.

It allocates $2,275 to help Afghan nationals resettled in the U.S.: $1,225 for direct assistance and $1,050 for administrative costs for things like housing, pocket money, school enrollment or legal services to adjust their immigration status.

That funding supplements what resettlement agencies have spent to get Afghans on their feet. That could including paying rent for the first few months or proving cash assistance for day to day spending.

The International Rescue Committee helped resettle more than half of the Afghans that arrived in Arizona. One of the initial challenges was finding permanent housing for the families. They initially placed Afghan families like the Muradian siblings in hotels.

Aaron Rippedkroeger, the group's executive director said getting them to permanent homes was especially important because that set them up on the path towards self-sufficiency.

"Every family is a bit different and how quickly they reach that," he said. "But the vast majority of them become self-sufficient within that 4 to 6 months timeframe."

The IRC helped the Muradians move into an apartment in the Alhambra neighborhood of Phoenix in March. This area has a high proportion of refugees already living in the area, in large part because the landlords already have experience working with resettlement agencies and because they are closer to resources for refugees and parolees.

The Muradian siblings said their goal is to learn enough English that will allow them to continue with their education. Razia, the oldest of the siblings, already has a bachelor's degree in philosophy. She'd like to get a master's here in Arizona.

"One day we go to... we come to United States and we want to go to a university in the United States and it was our dream," she said. "It was our dream. So are so happy we came here and we can do the university. It's really important for us, for all of us."

But any future plans are dependent on their ability to remain and live in the United States. The Muradian siblings said they don't see a possibility of returning to Afghanistan, where they would continue to be persecuted.

On Sept. 30, the Islamic State carried out another suicide attack at a school in Kabul that killed 35 Hazara women and girls and injured another 80. It follows several other attacks on the Hazara both by Islamic State and the Taliban.

The siblings said they hope to be able to one day bring their remaining family members in Afghanistan, including their mother, to safety in the United States.

For Fatima, the Female Tactical Platoon soldier, the only way to do that and to build a future in the U.S. is obtain long-term legal status.

"We want to not only ask those Afghans that they come here, they should not go back to Afghanistan, and be here for always and have a green card in a fast time," Basira said, translating for Fatima.

In August, Stanton and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act. It would provide permanent residency to Afghans evacuated to the U.S. and would also expand eligibility for special visas to Female Tactical Platoon soldiers like Fatima.

"The women of the FTPs, who played such a unique role, side by side with our special forces, these are people that we should be incredibly proud to have in our community," Stanton said. "There should be no doubt that we are lucky to have people of their bravery on this planet, and particularly now many of them relocating to Phoenix."

Even though the legislation has bipartisan support, to date it hasn't moved out of their respective committees in both chambers. With parole status set to expire next year for many of the Afghan evacuees, Stanton said they're running against the clock.

Have any news tips or story ideas about immigration in the Southwest? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Afghans find home in Arizona, but challenges remain