This story was originally published on WKNO on August 25, 2021.
From their modest apartment in Bartlett, Seeta Habib and her husband Noor watched in disbelief as the news unraveled from their home country earlier this month.
The images — throngs of people overrunning Kabul’s airport, desperate to flee new rule under the Taliban — left them feeling helpless.
“We got sick actually,” says Seeta, a 33-year-old pregnant mother. “We got a bad headache because it’s affecting you emotionally especially when you’re out of the country and you cannot do anything.”
The couple and three of their young children arrived in the Memphis area last October under what’s called a Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV. The program allows for Afghan nationals who helped the U.S. government with its war effort to resettle here. Before the fall of Kabul on August 15, federal officials said some 20,000 SIV applications were pending approval.
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