SOS In The News

Here are some news articles, podcasts, and videos our FTP’s and Mentors have been a part of!

Project Raha | Sisters Of Service | Afghan Women Veterans | Command Purpose | Jenn Hassin

November 2023

US and Afghan Women Veterans Connect, Heal, Transform, and Inspire through Art

“Raha” which translates to “release” from the Dari language in Afghanistan, is a joint art project between Afghan and U.S. women military veterans and a partnership between equals — The Command Purpose Foundation; Sisters of Service, a collection of women veterans from the U.S. Cultural Support Teams and their Afghan sisters in arms; and artist Jenn Hassin — and demonstrates the power of art as a medium to process transition. Project Raha took flight on the two-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, bringing together a diverse group of women committed to creating something extraordinary.

CBS News: U.S. veterans use art to help female Afghan soldiers who fled their country process their pain

10 November 2023

In a sunlit gallery high above Manhattan, artist Jenn Hassin is trying to repurpose the tattered threads of lives unraveled.

Hassin, a U.S. Air Force veteran, didn’t create the art on the gallery’s walls. Much of it comes from female Afghan military veterans who evacuated the country after the Taliban regained power more than two years ago. For the past year, Hassin has been hosting Afghan servicewomen at her studio near Austin, Texas, where she teaches them how to transform beloved items of clothing like hijabs, hats and even uniforms into colorful paper pulp that can be molded and shaped into anything they want.

One of those “escape artists,” Mahnaz Akbari, told CBS News that the art came from her heart and helps her process the chaos of the fall of her country and the loss of her hard-fought military career…

By Christina Ruffini, Kerry Breen

Afghan veteran works to build a pathway to citizenship for fellow vets

26 November 2023

Azizgul Ahmadi developed a taste for turkey subs while working at a Blacksburg sandwich shop.

She layered tomatoes, lettuce and cheese on a sub roll. They have so many breads in America, she would tell friends. Rye bread, wheat bread, hot dog buns. In Afghanistan, she only ate traditional Afghan flatbread.

“Anything else?” She asked a customer on the other side of the counter, a young woman who took her order and made way for the next person waiting in line at Sub Station II, where Ahmadi has worked since mid-2022, six months after she fled the fall of Afghanistan…

By Heather Rousseau

Habiba Sakhizada: A Remarkable Journey of Courage and Resilience

31 March 2023

“As a woman, I can inspire other women.”

Meet Habiba Sakhizada. For six years, she served as part of the Female Tactical Platoon—a courageous unit of trailblazing Afghan women trained to become soldiers by U.S. Special Ops. Following the fall of Kabul, Habiba is now finding her way in American life in Louisville and with us at GE Appliances, where she serves as an inspiration for all. Today, she dreams of becoming a citizen and joining the US Army.

By GE Appliances, A Haier Company

GE Appliances Everyday Voices Program: Habiba Sakhizada

Habiba Sakhizada, a refugee from Afhanistan, is one of more than 200 employees hired at Appliance Park in the last year as part of the GEA Every Voice program, which seeks to eliminate language as a barrier to employment. Habiba works as an operator at AP1, building washers and dryers.

By GE Appliances, A Haier Company

Stranger Becomes Neighbor: Ep. 3 Sisterhood of Embroidery and Artillery

22 August 2023

Looking at a young woman in a headscarf quietly ringing up groceries at Walmart, you would never know the dramatic life she has lived. During the war in Afghanistan, the US military trained a small, elite force of Afghan women called the Female Tactical Platoon (FTP) to serve alongside American special forces on dangerous night raids of suspected Taliban homes and compounds.
These female soldiers had to keep their work secret, even from their own neighbors, because they were not safe in their own country. And when the Taliban took control, there was no plan in place to protect them.
That’s when US soldiers – mostly women – who trained and worked with the FTPs decided they would have to be the ones to get this highly endangered group out of Afghanistan. They call themselves Sisters of Service.

By Andrea Smardon

POLITICO, Women Rule:
The Future for Afghan Women

On March 8, International Women’s Day, at 11:45 EST, Women Rule editor Elizabeth Ralph will host a panel discussion on the future for Afghan women. Hawa Haidari, a member of the Female Tactical Platoon, will join U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture Cindy McCain, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the U.S., Roya Rahmani, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to discuss how the female Afghan veterans now in the U.S. are planning their futures, what the women still in Afghanistan are facing and what the U.S. should do to support these groups.

The Roanoke Times: A new Life in Southwest Virginia, much uncertainty, but hope after escape from Afghanistan

13 February 2022

Shrouded in a black head-to-toe burqa, Muzhda peeked through two eye holes and got into a taxi as the hot August sun started to rise. She did not have time to think about leaving her entire life behind. At age 25, this was her first time wearing a burqa. She had to conceal her identity from the Taliban.

The typical 20-minute drive to the airport took hours. She was afraid for her life. She thought the Taliban might arrest or even shoot her. She said she had done many interviews with journalists in Kabul as part of her work with the U.S. military that occupied Afghanistan. She was scared someone would report her. As the taxicab sat in a traffic jam with others heading in the same direction, she held her breath at each checkpoint…

By Heather Rousseau

How To (Really) Help Refugees

26 April 2022

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, the Female Tactical Platoon, a unit of elite Afghan soldiers, knew they had to evacuate. “If they were captured, they would be killed,” according to a Green Beret who worked alongside them because they were “an affront to everything the Taliban stood for.” Ellie, a U.S. Army Captain, moved earth and heaven to get them to America. But navigating the U.S. refugee resettlement system proved much more difficult than they expected. On this episode of How To!, we introduce Ellie to Luma Mufleh, founder and CEO of Fugee Families, to discuss how the system can and should be improved. They share practical tips for how all of us can help in the most useful way possible.

Combat Story CS#76 Afghan Special Operator | Female Tactical Platoons (FTP) | Farida Mohammadi

May 2022

Today we have a unique Combat Story and our first ever with an Afghan Special Operator, Farida Mohammadi, and one of her American trainers Taylor Holliday. Farida was a member of the elite Female Tactical Platoons (or FTPs which numbered fewer than 35) that we heard about in episode 68 with former Ranger Battalion operator Patrick Kinsella. Farida, like all FTPs, had to pass a rigorous special operations selection process and were trained in CQB, a variety of firearms, and tactics, just like their male counterparts. She then went into battle alongside Rangers, ODAs, and Afghan Special Forces to give you an idea of the level of expertise required. We’re also fortunate to have Taylor here to share parts of her story as a Cultural Support Team member (the FTP trainers) who not only trained women like Farida but who also went on the objective with Special Operations units. Taylor is a part of Sisters of Service, a non-profit formed by fellow CSTs to help evacuate Farida and other FTPs out of Afghanistan after everything fell apart and help them resettle in the US.

Allies
Episode 7: Adjustment

20 June 2022

Mahnaz was a member of a Female Tactical Platoon in the Afghan Military. She was one of tens of thousands of Afghans who came to the United States during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. In our final episode, you’ll learn about the bureaucratic mess they’re still going through to get resettled. And how Congress could pass legislation to help, but it might not even come up for a vote.

POLITICO: The Untold Story of the Afghan Women Who Hunted the Taliban

08 April 2022

Trained by the U.S. Army, a group of trailblazing Afghan women turned into a formidable force in their homeland. They now live quietly scattered around the U.S., trying to reconcile their past with their present.

By Amanda Ripley | Photographs by Scott Gold Smith and Raymond McCrea Jones

The Atlantic: The Betrayal