Neither Maliha Karimi nor most of her members of the family had ever been on a airplane and even contained in the Kabul airport, however the concept of leaving gathered momentum, and so they set off for the airport.
“I simply took my passport and one telephone,” she recalled, “We had no meals, no water.”
Ms. Karimi, 27, the only breadwinner for her mother and father and one disabled brother and his household of six, had a particular cause to get out. As a beautician, she had misplaced her job the second the Taliban returned, as a result of they banned magnificence salons as immoral, making it inconceivable for her to take care of her household.
“They thought they have been brothels,” she mentioned.
The Karimi household reached the airport at 6 a.m. “The crowds have been horrible, pushing and shouting, and the Taliban have been taking pictures within the air,” Ms. Karimi mentioned.
Within the chaos, the household grew to become separated. Ms. Karimi grabbed the hand of one in all her brother’s youngsters, 6-year-old Sorush, whereas a cousin, Soraya, took the boy’s different hand. Conserving their heads down, they fought their means towards the gate.
“I simply determined to go ahead, not backward,” she mentioned. “I simply saved going ahead.”
Instantly, the 2 younger ladies, with Sorush between them, have been swept by way of the gate. The opposite 33 members of the family have been left behind, however there was no turning again.
It was 4 full days earlier than they reached Fort Bliss in El Paso, the place Ms. Karimi lastly may entry Wi-Fi and name Kabul to talk with the anguished mother and father of Sorush, who was so upset he had stopped consuming. Everybody wept: the mother and father aching for his or her son and Sorush homesick for his household.
With Ms. Karimi gone and nobody in her household again in Afghanistan working, they’re wanting all the things: meals, heating oil and medicines and are begging Ms. Karimi for assist.
