(Adalet with her husband, Ablimit (Photo credit : Adalet Sabit)
By Adalet Sabit
I am a firm believer in justice. Today, I have to fill the role of a mother and father with my 5-year-old daughter while living in Virginia, the US, where I work as a nurse.
My husband Ablimit Abliz and I got married in Urumqi in January 2017. Due to circumstances, I had to return alone to the United States with a heavy heart. Ablimit promised that he would soon join me.
The US immigration department approved Ablimit’s visa application at the end of January 2018, and together with him, I received an appointment for a face-to-face meeting at the American Embassy in Guangzhou on March 21, 2018, at 9:20 am. However, I couldn’t go to the embassy due to the unbearable pressure on my husband. My last contact with my husband via WeChat was on January 7, 2022.
Since then, I have been a single mother and raised my daughter without outside support. On January 7, the Chinese police came to our house and turned our lights off. We became depressed.
(Photo credit : Adalet Sabit)
Whenever I see my husband’s eyes, my heart burns for our daughter, who had never met her father. Ablimit faced forced separation from his family. I had to submit this petition to fulfill my duty as a mother.
For the past four years, I have communicated with the State Department and numerous government agencies, but I have not been able to get any effective results. My daughter keeps asking why mom and dad are separated, why dad doesn’t come home to see us, and why we don’t go to my dad’s house, She has patiently been standing in lines with the adults for hours and hours, whether it’s hot or cold. Holding posters in her hands, she has been fighting for his father and his people.
Today I can’t bear it anymore: My eyes are bleeding – but they are not tears. As a citizen of the United States of America, I ask the American government to accept her father’s application for reunification.
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