An Oldham woman has reunited with her fiancé after spending months trying to get him out of war-torn Gaza to safety in the UK.
Weeks after the war broke out in Gaza, mum-of-three Afshan Abubakar described feeling helpless as her husband, Hani Abualqaraya, became stuck in the region.
Afshan said delays in getting her husband out of Gaza have left her feeling in ‘constant fear’ and ‘psychologically damaged’, with her trust in the UK government damaged following delays and unclear procedures related to his evacuation.
@theoldhamtimes An Oldham woman has reunited with her fiancé after spending months trying to get him out of war-torn Gaza to safety in the UK. The pair shared a tearful embrace at Manchester Airport’s arrivals lounge on Friday, February 29, with Hani’s arm in a sling due to his injuries. Afshan and Hani thanked Mohammed Imran Ali, also known as Irish Immy, for his assistance in getting Hani to the UK. Immy, who accompanied Hani on a business class flight from Cairo to Manchester after reading The Oldham Times’ coverage, also paid for Hani’s hotel, food, and even new clothing. Read more on The Oldham Times.
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She said: “No matter how strong you are, war breaks you.
“They’ve affected my mental health severely.
“I’m emotionally distressed, I have breakdowns. When I close my eyes at night, I hear my husband's cries, I hear the bombing. Any big sound I get anxious, I get fear.
“When someone knocks at the door I’m scared and I’m thinking ‘Who’s this?’.
“I never used to live in fear, but they made me live in constant fear every second.”
The couple originally met in Egypt in 2022 through voluntary work, with Afshan using Zoom to teach English to children at the Al Fakhoora school, which has since been destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.
In late October, Hani, who lived in Gaza City, had his visa application approved to join his wife in the UK. However, he was still unable to leave the region due to the war.
By February, Hani had made the journey south to Rafah following evacuation orders from Israel.
However, he was left badly hurt after he was attacked by thieves, and faced the prospect his leg could be amputated.
Despite being approved for evacuation by the UK, Hani’s name still needed approval by both the Egyptian and Israeli governments for him to leave – something which was not forthcoming.
As a result, Afshan said, Hani was ‘ready to die’, and he had told her to ‘meet me in heaven’.
Reunited at Manchester Airport
However, weeks later, on the afternoon of Friday, February 29, the couple finally reunited after more than a year apart.
The pair shared a tearful embrace at Manchester Airport’s arrivals lounge, with Hani’s arm in a sling due to his injuries.
Afshan and Hani thanked Mohammed Imran Ali, also known as Irish Immy, for his assistance in getting Hani to the UK.
Immy, who accompanied Hani on a business class flight from Cairo to Manchester after reading The Oldham Times’ coverage, also paid for Hani’s hotel, food, and even new clothing.
Afshan called Immy her ‘hero and guardian angel’ and said he had saved two lives: Hani’s and her own.
The couple, whose Islamic marriage is not recognised by the UK legal system, now plan to formalise their union under UK law in a civil marriage ceremony at Chadderton Town Hall.
Speaking to The Oldham Times at the airport, Hani said: “Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, I feel happy.
“Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, all I want to say: thank you Allah, thank you Allah.
“I say it again, because of this man [Imran] I’m alive here. He saved my life. Because, you don’t know anything about the war in Gaza. Thank you so much.”
‘I feel like I can breathe’
Arriving at the airport more than an hour before her husband’s flight was scheduled to land, Afshan described how she had felt like a ‘dead person forced to live’ during the ordeal, which saw her husband sporadically cut off from water, supplies, healthcare, and communications technology.
Afshan said: “I haven’t been smiling from my heart in a long time. I feel like I can breathe because the burden’s gone.
“For me, my husband is my heaven. It’s a big deal to me that I will be able to see him alive in this life and spend that time with him.
“When you’re emailing, phone calling, it takes a lot of time and effort. Suffering sleep deprivation on top of that, I was literally at that stage where I felt like I was begging everyone to help me and I wasn’t getting the response I needed.”
Afshan thanked MP Debbie Abrahams for her attempts to help rescue Hani from Gaza.
In January, the Oldham MP brought Hani’s case to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, urging him to liaise with Israeli and Egyptian authorities to immediately evacuate him.
Afshan said: “I feel Debbie Abrahams did do the best she could. She took my case to Parliament in front of Rishi Sunak. It’s not her fault, I feel she never got the response she needed, to be honest.
“I’m thankful to her for the fact that she spoke to the FCDO and made sure that Hani got treatment at the Emirates hospital in Gaza. He got antibiotics, he was bandaged, he was scanned.
“I’m thankful to her for that. That meant that he got the help that he needed to ensure that he never had to have the amputation – it saved his leg.”
‘I understand pain of Israeli hostages’ families’
Afshan criticised Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as wrong, and hoped for Israeli hostages to be returned to their families, with peace brought to the region.
She said: “When the Israeli hostages’ families entered a meeting which was taking place, I cried because I understood their pain.
“Just as they want their loved ones back, just like that I was crying for my Hani back. It’s the same pain, isn’t it?”
She added: “All the Palestinians, including my family, are being punished for something they’ve not done. My husband’s never supported Hamas and he’s never bigged them up.
“I think it’s unfair that all the houses, schools, universities, hospitals – everything was destroyed through no fault of their own. What did my family, what did my students have to do with it?”
Experience ‘traumatising’
Afshan said the ordeal had left Hani ‘traumatised’ and with suicidal thoughts.
She said: “He tried to commit suicide. I don’t blame him though, because he was in that situation, I wasn’t. Only he knows what he saw.
“My plan is to give him a happy, relaxed atmosphere, help him rest and help him get over his trauma as well as dealing with my own. At the same time, I want to be a supportive wife by keeping supporting Palestine, keep supporting his family to give them hope of survival.
“They’re in tents and they’re scared of what’s going to happen in Rafah.
“I just feel sad when I think about them. The genocide has not stopped, it still continues. His nieces, his nephews – they’re all traumatised.
“I’m happy he’s with me. This terrible time tested our love, and it tested our marriage.”
She added: “He lost everything, he lost his home, his essentials, his self-respect, in a way.”
Afshan plans to continue protesting and campaigning for a ceasefire and peace in Gaza, but says Hani will take some time before he joins her.
She said: “He wants to try and get his mind off things. He said he wants to forget what he’s seen, those were his exact words.”
Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place to talk for anyone who is struggling to cope.
Call 116 123 (this number is free to call and will not appear on your phone bill), 01204 521200 or email jo@samaritans.org.
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