09:54 31/08/2021
Afghan-American Haseeb Kamal got married just one day before Kabul fell to the Taliban. During his chaotic departure from Afghanistan, his wife and most of his family were left behind. VOA correspondent Carolyn Presutti brings his story exclusively to VOA.
The roar of the crowd is what Haseeb Kamali remembers most.
"It seemed as if the world was ending, it seemed so."
He was at Abbey Gate at Kabul airport when he was separated from his family members.
Years ago, Kamal was a translator for US forces in Afghanistan. He left his country on a Special Immigrant Visa in 2014 and became a US citizen. But someone called him back in Afghanistan this year.
"I'm glad I found him."
Kamali got married on August 14. The next day, Kabul fell to the Taliban. He knew they all had to leave.
He and his family went through the checkpoints at the airport gate, showing the US Marines his US passport. But only three would pass.
"I started pushing my sister in the middle of the crowd and telling people 'Hey, she's sick can you please move?'"
Along the way they saw injured children and sticks being used as weapons. Memories that are now beginning to affect Bibi Sara Kamali, who was in her final year of medical school.
"My brother was behind me. We used to sit down to escape being beaten with sticks. There were many children injured, or hit in the face. Some of them had died trampled by the crowds", says Bibi Sara Kamal for the Voice of America.
Bibi Sara passed the gate and entered the airport. So did Kamal and their father.
A few hours later, they boarded a C-17 transport plane, bound for Qatar.
They stayed there for three days without showering or changing clothes. From Qatar, they flew to Ramstein, Germany, and finally boarded a plane to Dallas International Airport in Virginia.
Their nine-day journey is over, but Kamal is haunted by having left behind his mother, brothers, sisters and new bride.
"I had a mission. I took my family out and failed. Honestly, I'm really very worried."
Even in the United States, the Kamal family is still divided. Their father is an hour away in Fort Lee, where the vetting process will take three weeks.
Their father has no documents. He is a retired colonel with the Afghan army, but destroyed any evidence of hiding from the Taliban.
"We also destroyed his uniforms, I helped him burn them all", says Haseeb Kamal.
As the brother and sister begin American life, Kamali knows that his family will live a much different life.
"I would say that there is no future for Afghanistan", says Haseeb Kamali.
He talks on the phone with his bride almost three times a day. They promised each other that they would be together forever and now Kamali wonders when they will be able to start that new life./VOA
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
