Arifa had lost nearly everything when Marla Ruzicka walked through the door and into her life. The American intervention in Afghanistan had started just weeks before. A US bomb missed its target by three miles and landed instead on Arifa’s home, leaving her a widow at the age of 30. She buried her husband, eldest son and six other family members under small, chipped stone markers on a dirt street outside Kabul.
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Author: Sarah Holewinski
Sarah Holewinski is CIVIC's former Executive Director and now serves on the Board of Directors. She was most recently deputy chief of staff for policy at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. As executive director of CIVIC, she led efforts to advise warring parties on civilian protection and responsible use of force and worked extensively with the U.S. military and its allies and in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, CAR, Burma, and elsewhere.
