US Marine’s Adoption of Afghan War Orphan Voided: A Modern Day Tragedy

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A judge in Virginia on Thursday made a very odd decision. A US Marine has been stopped from adopting an orphaned Afghan girl, even though he already removed her from the people looking after her 1 year ago. It is unclear what might happen to the girl now.

The Masts, a US Marine and his wife, have temporarily taken in a child under an adoption order they got before. Later on, they have to tell the court that they should be allowed to adopt the child permanently.

The Afghan couple was very excited when they heard the news. The government of Afghanistan had known them to be the parents of the child since February 2020, and they had taken care of her for a whole year and a half. As soon as they stepped out of the courthouse, both were so overwhelmed with joy that they kneeled on the ground and started praying. Then, the young man wiped away his wife’s tears from both their faces using her headscarf.

The Masts and their attorneys rushed out of the courthouse on Thursday without saying a word. This dispute was important enough that even the White House and the Taliban started to get worried after an Associated Press investigation in October told everyone what the Mast family wanted: to save a baby as part of their Christian faith. But until now, none of this has changed and the adoption order is still in effect.

Judge Claude V. Worrell Jr. said on Thursday that there has never been a similar case as this one. The girl, who will be 4 this summer, was hurt and found in rubble after the US-Afghan military did a raid in a rural area of the country back in September 2019. She stayed in an American military hospital for over five months until the Afghan government and the International Committee of the Red Cross figured out that she had family members still alive and brought her back to them.

While in hospital, Mast heard about a baby that didn’t have any parents. He and his wife decided to be her adoptive parents. They told a judge named Richard Moore that the baby was originally from Afghanistan. The couple convinced the judge that her biological parents had died in a fight and now she was an orphan with no country. Even though they promised the Afghan government would let them take care of her, it never happened. In the end, the judge approved their adoption.

The Masts contacted the Afghan couple and said they could help with her medical treatment. When the U.S. army left Afghanistan in 2021, the Masts helped them to move to America. They used an adoption order to take away the child from them since then, and the couple have not seen their daughter again.

The Masts have said in court documents that they officially adopted the child and that the Afghan couple’s claims that they kidnapped her are not true. They would not say anything else to the Associated Press.

A judge named Worrell looked over the case after Judge Moore retired in November. He said that an Afghan couple was acting as the parents and their rights were not respected. He also stated that the Masts knew things they did not tell anyone, including information about what was going on in Afghanistan during the adoption process. In conclusion, he felt it wasn’t done intentionally but stated that the court didn’t know all of the facts known to the Masts at the time this decision was made.

This court ruling is very unusual because it is hard for adopted families to have their adoptions overturned. Virginia lawyer Stanton Phillips said that this doesn’t happen often and adoption attorney Barbara Jones also mentioned this event as something really special. The Defense Department knows about the case and referred the AP to the Justice Department, but they did not comment anything. Another meeting will take place in June regarding these events.