An orphaned girl from Afghanistan, who “fled” to Qatar in August 2021, when the Taliban took control of Kabul, causing panic and a mass exodus of residents, is back in the arms of her relative after almost 2 years.

His parents were killed in a bomb blast and shootout at Kabul airport that killed 183 people on August 26.

After the attack, a teenager grabbed the infant and took it with him to the US military plane that was to bring Afghans and foreign nationals stranded in the country to Doha, a Qatari official said.

Little Aliza, as she had been christened, was taken to the Dreama orphanage in Qatar while her older brother and two sisters remained in Afghanistan, where the Taliban established what they called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Mariam – as she was christened in Qatar – was the youngest of about 200 children from Afghanistan who were taken unaccompanied on flights carrying tens of thousands of people out of the country.

Reuniting with family

The emotionally charged reunion of the little girl with her relatives ended a frantic search for the child through UNICEF and confirmation of the blood relationship with DNA tests

The little girl, who is now believed to be around 21 months old, saw her uncle Yar Mohammed Niazi again, her brother and two sisters for the first time.

“I didn’t know if we would ever find her again and now I’m overwhelmed with emotions,” says Niazi, who is in his late 40s and has four children of his own. “When I hugged her all I said to myself was ‘she’s alive’.”

Niazi waited months for the new Taliban authorities to issue him a passport so he could take his family to Qatar. Now that he is there he says he will begin the process of settling in the US with his wife and the eight children he now has to care for.

Social workers will gradually give him and the siblings more and more access to Mariam so they can get to know each other.

As Niazi says, the little girl will keep her new name because that is what she answers to….