An Afghani woman seeking asylum and education

Hello.

We* have welcomed yet another person into our home: a 26-year-old, educated, lovely, intelligent Afghani woman who has applied for asylum in the U.S. to avoid persecution and possibly physical violence if she returns to Afghanistan. We will call her Amina. We are not using her name or image for her privacy and safety.

Amina grew up in a relatively free Afghanistan with a strong, supportive mother, who pushed Amina to obtain education and avoid an early marriage. Her mother had entered into an arranged marrage at age 12 and had 5 children. With her mother's support - over the threats, protests, and ostracism of her mother's Taliban-supporting family - Amina fled Afghanistan after it fell to the Taliban and received a degree in public health from a university in Bangladesh. She wants to help her country but it is not safe for her there. Taliban soldiers have already searched her mother's home for information on her activities, which have included supporting other students and working on women's rights.

About a month and a half ago, Amina came to the US to visit a friend who was completing her master's degree at Brandeis. While here, she applied for asylum.

She arrived with very little money and no source of revenue since she is not yet legally permitted to work. Timothy and I are providing her with housing and food through the end of August. She needs money, however, to apply for various educational programs and scholarships she is seeking as well to get her own housing and to pay for other incidentals, like medicine, clothes, movies, books, mobile service, etc.

Our synagogue's refugee committee is generously providing money for the summer. But that money will not cover housing costs she will have after August and all of her application costs.

Will you please contribute to helping Amina? We have only just gotten to know her in the last few weeks, but we already adore her and are very impressed with her. She is serious and focused and resourceful as well as warm and caring. You can meet her if you visit us.

Any amount will help. We are hoping that perhaps 100 friends will contribute at least $25. That will go a long way!

We will not keep any money you donate. Every cent will be passed onto Amina.

*We are Andrea Kramer, a Boston-area attorney, educator, and activist, and Timothy Roach, a college professor at a private Massachusetts college. We live in Cambridge and have opened our home to international students and others over the years and have done so because we can and because each time we have we have met and become close to wonderful young people who have enriched us and our lives.