Save Zabi from Taliban

Hi, my name is Ann Shannon. I am fundraising for my new surrogate granddaughter Malali and her husband Zabi. They are refugees who escaped by different routes from the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021. They are desperate to keep Zabi from being deported from Turkey to Afghanistan. The stakes couldn't be higher because he is wanted by the Taliban. Several of his friends have already been deported, never to be seen or heard from again.

Zabi fled to Turkey through its open border during the Taliban takeover, while Malali escaped to Poland. Turkey stopped processing applications for legal status by Afghan refugees and is now hell-bent on deporting them back to Afghanistan instead, regardless of what awaits them there. Zabi and Malali live in constant fear of Zabi being sent home and killed.

Thank you for reading Malali and Zabi's story. Please hold them in your hearts and prayers. Any amount you might be able to give to get Zabi to safety set up in Poland will not only reverberate with light and joy in their own lives, but around the world.

Love to you and yours,

Ann Shannon

The plan and its costs;

Malali making a point at a college debate (before fleeing Afghanistan).

Malali is a standout young women's rights activist who is being mentored by my daughter, Lisa. She has become a much-loved member of our family since arriving here in August 2022 on a short-term internship visa that expires in July.) She is applying for a h1b visa for a longer-term position.

Malali at Mazar-e-Sharif Conference Advocating

women's rights (before fleeing Afghanistan)

Malalai and Zabi: A Love Story

Malali and Zabi are a bright, beautiful and dear, hardworking young refugee couple who were separated when fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan In August 2021.

They are a joy to all who know them. Both financially support their own parents (Malali has supported her family since she was 16). Zabi and Malali only had one month together after getting married.

Prior to fleeing the Taliban in August 2021, Malali designed and taught classes to prevent child marriages in rural villages in Afghanistan. She courageously taught 4000 men over a two-year period, knowing the Taliban were in the area and that she could be killed at any time for her efforts. Though class participants were intensely hostile to her and the class, by graduation they were approaching her with lists of new names for the class, crying, and thanking her for all they had learned. She is just that powerful.

One of Malali's classes to prevent early marriage and pregnancies in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan (before fleeing Afghanistan)

Malali is in the US on a short-term visa to intern for a global coalition calling for a new UN treaty to end violence against women and girls, where she leads a global group of Emerging Leaders. Her current visa expires in July. It does not permit her to work other than as an intern. So she must raise $2500 as her contribution to the costs of a h1b visa in order to step into a permanent position after her current visa expires.

Currently, Malali receives room and board as an intern. She sends $500 of her $600 monthly stipend to support her parents and younger sister, who escaped to Pakistan but who are not allowed to work there as refugees. That makes it impossible for her to raise the money she needs for her h1b visa or to get Zabi out of Turkey.

Zabi has been living under the radar in Turkey, quietly working, and sending his own family enough money for groceries to survive in Afghanistan. He has been seeking legal status in Turkey,

Both Malali and Zabi live in constant fear of him being sent back to Afghanistan and being killed by the Taliban. They have come to his family's home searching for him. He faces prison and almost certain death if he is returned there.

Zabi cannot avoid Turkish authorities and deportation indefinitely. His life is literally on the line. Getting him out of Turkey quickly is critical.

Zabi is as devoted to Malali as she is to him; he encourages her impassioned work for women's rights.

A message from Malali:

I have lived through the worst of times, through the heart of the violence, panic, and chaos at Abbey Gate outside the Kabul airport in August 2021. I saw people dying, knowing they were going to die. I felt I was going to die. We had nothing to eat. No water for children on parents’ backs. Terror in children’s faces as gunshots were going off all around us. People being hit with those bullets. Taliban beating people. Thousands, ten thousand people, waiting for days. Dirty. Desperate. Knowing, ‘I am going to die now and nobody will care. My family will never find my body.”

But I didn’t die. I lived. I am more alive. I am more powerful. I am more committed, more eager to contribute than ever. I know the value of the lives that are taken. I know my life is a gift. I know that every life is a gift. I want to live in a world that recognizes that.

I give 100% of myself to create that kind of world. I can do nothing else. One day I will die. But I am going to live my life. I am going to change the world in whatever ways I can – working for women’s rights, for refugees, and on climate change – to make women and children and the poor safe.

I love my husband. I need him to be safe to do the work I’m called to do for a better world. Zabi is a bright and kind, beautiful and good man. Please help me get him safely to Poland, where I have legal status.

Any small donation that might work for you will help me obtain my h1b visa, get him out of Turkey to keep him alive and set up in Poland.

My deepest thanks to you for reading our story and for supporting us in any way, or any amount you can, even if that is only with your prayers or a note of encouragement.

My blessings and love and prayers to you,

Malali

Any donation you can make, however small, will literally be saving Zabi's life. Every dollar counts.

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