Conflict in Iran complicates reunion of couple from Australia and Iran
Mohammad Mohammadi, who lives in Bordertown, South Australia, has not seen his fiancée, Fereshteh Ahmadi, who is in Iran, for almost three years. Visa issues are complicating the couple’s reunion, while Mohammad’s planned trip to Iran this year was disrupted by the conflict.
As ABC News Australia reports, Mohammad found Ahmadi, an artist, on Instagram after his brother died in 2020. The artist offered to send him a portrait of his brother that she had painted. It later emerged that their families had been neighbours in the same village in Afghanistan.
Meeting and engagement
Mohammad and Ahmadi are Afghan refugees who lived in Iran. Mohammad moved to Australia in 2010, and the year after they met on Instagram, he travelled to Iran to collect the portrait in person. After their first in-person meeting, the couple decided to get engaged.
In 2022, they held a small celebration with their families and obtained a marriage certificate at the Afghan embassy in Tehran. Five weeks later, Mohammad returned to Australia for work. According to him, obtaining the documents Ahmadi needs for a visa is difficult because of her status as an Afghan refugee in Iran.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Cancelled flight
Mohammad said he had planned to visit his fiancée earlier this year. A week before his departure, he said, Israel and the United States attacked Iran, after which the flight was cancelled.
After the conflict began, Mohammad had no contact with Ahmadi and her family for almost two months. When the internet was restored, they told him they were safe. The couple can now speak frequently, but cannot make video calls because of the poor connection quality.
Mohammad hopes to meet Ahmadi again in Iran, hold a ceremony with their families, and then return to Australia together. He also wants her to be able to continue making art after moving to Bordertown.
