The Stand
“When we came from Afghanistan, my wife was pregnant and she was in such a bad situation inside of the airplane,” said Arsalan Sultani, who was evacuated to the United States when Afghanistan fell last August. “I started to make a better life for my family. I want to do everything for them.”
Sultani, 25, served in the Afghan Armed Forces against the Taliban until the fall of the county, when he and his wife escaped by shredding personal documents to evade detection.
Now, with a 6-month-old daughter and the chance to call Syracuse home, he faces complex legal challenges to remain.
This story grew from reporting by Jeff Kramer in “Humanitarian Parole.” To listen to the debut and future episodes of The Stand’s podcast, “My South Side,” hosted and produced by Abby Fritz, listen here or find on Spotify.
A transcript in full of the episode can be found here.
