From War to Peace: Female Afghan Veterans Pursue a New Life in Virginia
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In Virginia, Afghan female veterans have discovered a new source of hope and a brighter future. These women are receiving assistance from Sima Gul, the program director of the Afghan Women Veterans Initiative, as they work toward making a new beginning in the state.
The Afghan Women Veterans Initiative, a program run by the Veterans Consortium, is to assist female veterans who have served in the military forces of Afghanistan in reestablishing their life in the United States. Counseling for mental health issues, job training and placement support, and legal representation are just some services available via this program.
The Afghan Women Veterans Initiative is led by Sima Gul, an Afghan-American woman who served in the military during the conflict in Afghanistan and is now the head of the initiative. She assists female veterans in adjusting to life in the United States and gives them the resources to begin over.
According to Gul, the initiative has been of assistance to a large number of female Afghan veterans in Virginia. She thinks that women can adjust well to new environments and positively contribute to the communities in which they dwell.
Sima Gul carried an M4 carbine across Afghanistan's Hindu Kush. Her unit crossed the desolate area stealthily and quickly, using night vision goggles to navigate the hilly terrain.
Gul's body armor sweated in the subzero temperatures. She tracked the Taliban in her hometown for hours with the U.S. military. It was one of Gul's six years in the Afghan Female Tactical Platoon, a secret organization that partnered with the U.S. Special Operations forces to fight the Taliban.
Two years later, in a Blacksburg apartment on the other side of the globe, Gul used a smartphone to communicate with relatives in Afghanistan. She worries about them and her mother, who lost her legs in an airport bomb when the Taliban retook power in August 2021.
"They don't know any minute whether they are going to be alive or the Taliban is going to raid their home and seize everything and murder them," Gul added in Dari via a translator.
Before joining the Afghan military, 26-year-old Gul wanted to study art and perform. Gul stated her country's women's military duty broke all taboos. "It doesn't matter; I joined."
"Men cannot search a woman's body in Afghan culture," Gul remarked. "We may ask many questions and check Taliban women for weapons and explosive devices to gather additional information." Gul fought fiercely.
Gul said he would never forget the explosion that killed five male Afghan troops. "Everything was broken. Missing limbs."
Gul met her husband in the Afghan military. During a 2020 Taliban raid, he was killed in a separate blast. After their honeymoon, he returned to duty. Before his explosion, Gul told him she was pregnant. "Amir is my only valuable possession from my husband," she stated, crying.
Requesting Asylum
After the U.S. forces departed Afghanistan, more than 70,000 Afghans were evacuated to the U.S. on humanitarian parole, including Gul and her colleagues. President Joe Biden's two-year parole expires in August.
Gul and FTP members await asylum decisions. If Congress passes the Afghan Adjustment Act, they might get permanent residency in the US. The measure has been in House and Senate committees since last year and has yet to clear Congress. Gul fears Congress may repatriate her and other FTP fighters to Afghanistan.
Edmondson was part of the U.S. Army Cultural Support Team that trained the Female Tactical Platoon in Kabul alongside Gul. Edmondson said Sima always brought enthusiasm to difficult circumstances. "Despite many extremely severe hurdles and barriers, she'd walk up with a grin and had this flair."
According to the Departments of State and Homeland Security, nearly 8,000 Special Immigrant Visas were awarded to Afghans who helped the U.S. SIVs provide U.S. government supporters permanent residency.
The bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act would extend SIV eligibility to some Afghan nationals and establish a route to permanent residency for at-risk Afghan friends and family following extra verification. In December, the measure was removed from an omnibus budget package, disappointing thousands of refugees and angering supporters.
The House and Senate judiciary committees have stalled the measure since last year. Congress may not vote on the measure. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a non-Judicial Committee member, supports the Afghan Adjustment Act.
"Our Afghan partners were vital to aiding U.S. personnel," Kaine wrote in an email. "I was glad Virginia played such a critical part during the 2021 evacuation effort, but we must continue to aid them and their families, including adopting the Afghan Adjustment Act."
Learning Chances
The Blacksburg Refugee Partnership and The Secular Society helped unite Afghan military women. They're moving into a wooded college town apartment complex. (The Secular Society is a Blacksburg-based nonprofit assisting other refugees and funding a fellowship supporting this reporting.)
Gul arrived at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport on a rainy December evening, greeted by a terminal filled with smiling faces. Gul walked with her son's stroller as he slept. One of the first people to welcome her was Azizgul Ahmadi, a fellow member of the Female Tactical Platoon.
Since leaving Afghanistan when the Taliban took power, Gul and Ahmadi, along with other members of the Female Tactical Platoon and their families, have been residing in Blacksburg. A single mother and her spouse and child traveled to Blacksburg. She brought her younger sister, Ahmadi, with her.
In Utah, Gul had full-time work, her driving license, and childcare for Amir, but she needed more time to study English and struggled to locate teachers. Blacksburg allowed me to live with friends and study English. "I want to study English so I can stand on my own two feet," Gul stated she had been learning.
Gul had no devoted volunteers to teach her English four days a week in Utah. In Blacksburg, The Secular Society finances Gul's advanced English studies at Virginia Tech's Language and Cultural Institute. Edmondson said Blacksburg Refugee Partnership provides unequaled assistance.
"Blacksburg is unusual in that you've got so many volunteers that spend so much of their time, energy, and attention to supporting these people," Edmondson said. "Blacksburg Refugee Partnership supports families exponentially."
The Secular Society helps Afghan women establish freedom in the US by funding BRP. The Secular Society covers all housing and educational costs for Afghan military soldiers studying English. Women like Gul and Ahmadi are TSS Scholars.
Struggle for a Better Life
Ahmadi and her adolescent sister came to the US a year ago without English skills. "I didn't know my ABCs," she remarked in better English. She feels obligated to aid Taliban-ruled Afghan women.
Ahmadi, 28, was an Afghan police officer before joining the Female Tactical Platoon. She studied criminology at Kabul University for four years when the Taliban seized power.
She fought the Taliban for Afghan women's betterment. American action movies shaped her. I saw Arnold (Schwarzenegger) and Rambo as a child. I wish to oppose evil always."
Few Happy Memories
Gul and Ahmadi headed to class with English study materials in their bags and entered a Blacksburg United Methodist Church mobile home.
Literacy Volunteers of the New River Valley and Blacksburg Refugee Partnership teach daily-life English four days a week.
"This program is a skill-up class," said class teacher Anne Abbott, a refugee partnership board member. Students use English to attain real-life objectives.
Abbott said Afghan military women might get scholarships from The Secular Society to study English at Virginia Tech's Language and Culture Institute, part of the university's foreign student outreach. Because they emphasize academic language, Abbott said English lessons are more challenging. Working moms may find class demands difficult.
Four ladies gathered around a table in Abbott's English class, surrounded by posters of brilliantly colored letters, figures, and world and US maps.
Abbott had the ladies split into groups with instructors and share positive experiences. Ahmadi has no happy memories.
"I was forced to marry when I was 12," she claimed. Her relatives helped her divorce and found a job to support her family.
Ahmadi remembered the Taliban kidnapping and torturing her father when she was 8. She stated her father returned but couldn't walk because the Taliban whipped his feet.
Ahmadi cried. The other Afghan women joined them. Gul told about her kid, then her husband's untimely death. "Amir makes me happy," Gul stated. Her spouse died, she said.
"He is Shaheed," she added, pondering an American term. "He's martyred. Nothing remains."
Friendships were abundant, but happy memories were limited.
She spent much time in the fruit department before exploring the kid's drink box aisle. "Is this simply apple juice?" she said, reading a box's ingredients.
Changed Homeland
Ahmadi enthusiastically greeted visitors for her sister Shah Pari's 17th birthday celebration in a long pink outfit with white sequins.
Her mother gave Pari a traditional Afghan outfit from Afghanistan for her birthday.
Afghan refugees and Blacksburg Refugee Partnership volunteers filled the two-bedroom apartment.
A tray of cucumber, tomato, and radish surrounded a pile of rice. "#HBD"—shorthand for "happy birthday"—was twisted into pink balloons.
As she ate a birthday cake with two 1 and 7 candles, Pari smiled. She gazed and covered her face with her hands before crying. Gul watched as Amir cried because he wanted to unwrap his birthday gifts. Her friend's sobbing made sense.
Abbott and Scott Bailey, president of the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership, stepped in. They sliced the first cake with five hands.
Abbott and Bailey spoke with Afghan women and their families. Bailey was pleased with an Afghan military member's brother's driver's license and an Afghan woman's 11-year-old son's Gilbert Linkous Elementary School student of the week.
She and the young military ladies danced around the flat to pop-style Afghan music.
Ahmadi swayed Amir as Gul walked about in a Gucci blouse, flowery skirt, and black trousers. She waved and swirled.
Blacksburg briefly reminded them of home. Since the Taliban retook Afghanistan and banned females from schooling, that household looks quite different.
Returning to Duty
Ahmadi wants her green card to enter the U.S. military. She had asylum interviews in Washington, D.C.
She enjoyed working with her unit and is grateful to be in Blacksburg, among other service people.
Always fear. She remarked of her military career, "We weren't so confident we would get back from each operation." "However, I was delighted and proud to perform these operations to save ladies or people."
Ahmadi will attend college with Secular Society funding. Even though she had an undergraduate degree and was working on her master's degree in criminology in Kabul, transferring her degree and credits to the US was so difficult that she decided to start college afresh.
"I'm considering nursing," she added. Different nations, languages, and degrees.
Her priorities are her kid and English. She rocked Amir to sleep in her living room.
Gul hopes her kid is nice, healthy, and hardworking. She prays for her mother, Afghanistan, and the Taliban to fall. She may live in the US or Afghanistan.
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