Multicultural Tamworth leader Eddie Whitham has successfully saved an Afghan woman from likely death at the hands of the Taliban.
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Mitra Husseini - a 28-year-old Afghan who ran a women's charity until the Taliban took over the country this month - has plane tickets for a Sydney flight on Tuesday.
Mr Whitham met Ms Husseini in Dubai in 2016. He's been trying to get her to safety in Australia ever since.
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"I've been working through this for the last five years and suddenly after all the mess, she was free," he said.
Mitra had already successfully escaped Afghanistan to Dubai, but was facing the prospect of being stuck in the Middle East if she couldn't get a visa.
Eddie used everything from a photo of himself with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to his citizen of the year award to convince the officials to let her on the plane. The news arrived a little after midnight on Tuesday: Mitra had plane tickets to Sydney.
It was a euphoric moment, he said.
"It's a God moment for us. It's been a long haul," he said.
"It was a pretty big triumph."
It's unclear whether she took off at 9am or 9pm, Dubai time. Either way she will have to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine in Sydney before moving to Tamworth.
Mitra leaves Afghanistan with nothing but a black dress, her passport and identification, plane tickets and an Australian temporary protection visa. She threw her jewellry into a sewer to avoid detection by the Taliban.
Not for the first time, Mr Whitham will offer the refugee a place to sleep for as long as she needs.
Aside from being a women's rights advocate, Mitra is also a member of Afghanistan's Hazara minority.
The family of Tamworth bricklayer Azem Alizada is still stuck in Afghanistan. They're among thousands of ordinary Afghans who face persecution at the hands of the Taliban, who have yet to get to safety.
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