Taliban killed her husband, father and mother. Now, after 6 years, Toronto-area woman reunites with siblings

For six years — 2,190 days — Saira Ahmadi has been waiting for the chance to hold her six siblings after her family was torn apart by the Taliban.

That day finally came this week, when Ahmadi, who lives in the Toronto area, reunited with her five brothers and sister for the first time since 2016 on Canadian soil.

"It was a difficult time for them and for me but I'm very grateful for the people who helped us, who sponsored my siblings," Ahmadi said.

Ahmadi, 30, arrived in Canada in 2018 and has been pushing to get her siblings safely to Canada with the help of supporters in the Greater Toronto Area.

The family's saga stretches over two decades and has chapters in India, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan, their homeland. Ahmadi's mother, father and husband were all killed by the Taliban in separate incidents. After she moved to Canada hoping for a new beginning with her husband, tragedy struck yet again, separating her from her six siblings — the only family she has left behind.

Since then, however, a community has formed around Ahmadi in Canada that's helped her bring her siblings to Canada. After fundraising, lots of paperwork and co-ordination, she was finally able to sponsor them. They reunited late Wednesday night.

The siblings range in age from 18 to 12 years old: Mursal, Eid Mohammed, Ali, Murtaza, Fahim and Sami. 

In 2009, their home in Afghanistan was destroyed by a bomb, killing their mother and stepbrother.

Seven years later, Ahmadi married her husband, Ezatullah, an Afghan translator working with the Canadian Forces. The pair were in New Delhi, India, at the time but planned to move to Canada together in 2018. But that didn't happen after her father-in-law became ill, so Ahmadi made the journey alone.

She arrived in Toronto on March 17, 2018, before her visa would expire. Her husband stayed in Afghanistan to care for his father. 

Only a week later, on March 28, Ahmadi received the news that her husband has been killed in a targeted car bombing.

That same year, the family's village was attacked and 72 people were killed, including Ahmadi's father and her three stepbrothers. Her siblings escaped to Tajikistan with their stepmother.

Ahmadi was alone when she received the news.

"I became unconscious. I went to the hospital. I spent a night in the hospital," Ahmadi said.