Afghanistan Refugee Granted Asylum After Years Long Process

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, Jenner & Block has had more than a dozen active asylum cases for refugees to bring them to safety. On March 24, 2023, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted asylum to client Fawzia. This was one of four asylum cases that the firm handled, in partnership with Tahirih Justice Center, on behalf of young Afghan women forced to flee the country as the Taliban took control and this is the first grant of asylum.

From 2018 to 2020, Fawzia was a student at Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh. In 2020, she and her fellow Afghan students at AUW were forced to return to Afghanistan because of the COVID outbreak. Fawzia continued her education at AUW by taking online classes from her home in Kabul. In August 2021, as the Taliban were on the verge of taking control of Afghanistan, administrators from AUW made arrangements to evacuate Fawzia and approximately 150 of her Afghan cohort