In September 2019, when Baby Doe was just two months old, her parents and 5 siblings were killed in a U.S. raid. While the government alleges otherwise, attorneys for the Does and Baby Doe’s family in the U.S., state that Baby Doe’s parents were farmers, unaffiliated with any terrorist groups.
Human Rights Watch has investigated U.S. night raids in Afghanistan throughout the last 20 years and “found that many were based on faulty intelligence or false presumptions.” In a 2019 investigation of 14 U.S. night raids, Human Rights Watch found that, “in none of the cases…did the civilians who were killed offer resistance or act in any way that justified the use of force.”
Marine Corps Major Joshua Mast heard about Baby Doe’s situation, and began to misuse his position to circumvent countless agency policies, U.S. and international norms, and foreign policy interests in his effort to forge an adoption of Baby Doe.
The Mast family appeals to government officials, who enable them in their efforts to abduct Baby Doe. From what has been made public through investigative reports, we know that the Masts met with Congressional and Senate officials, including Senator Ted Cruz.
Mast is assisted in Fluvanna County Court in Virginia by his brother, Richard Mast, an attorney with Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal-aid group affiliated with Liberty University.
Per The New York Times, “Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff, wrote to Richard Mast (Joshua Mast’s brother), ‘I’m praying for your success.’ In his emails to Mulvaney, Mast requested that the president order the baby to be ‘evacuated immediately to the United States.’”
With his contacts in the Trump administration and senior officials, Mast attempted to prevent Baby Doe from being released to the former Afghan government, knowing she would be placed with her relatives.
Despite Mast’s efforts to prevent the reunion, the former Afghan government together with the International Red Cross, placed Baby Doe with her biological relatives, who became her parents. They prioritized the considerations of the child’s best interests, which would always be to place a child in the care of her loving close family that share her culture, language, and faith.
By this time, Baby Doe had been living with her Afghan family for eighteen months, being raised as the beloved first child of her guardians.
However, as the Taliban took over the Afghan government, Mast used the chaos of the U.S. evacuation, his power as an employee of the U.S. Department of Defense, and his illegitimate adoption (including a dubiously procured passport for Baby Doe) to capture her from her family when they arrived to Fort Pickett, Virginia.
Baby Doe’s story becomes public, following reporting from AP News and The New York Times Magazine.
Afghans in diaspora, veterans, children’s rights advocates, adoptee advocates, collectively become outraged for Baby Doe and her family. Baby Doe’s kidnapping is an extension of the harm caused by decades of U.S. foreign policy and occupation in Afghanistan, down to the raid that killed her parents and siblings.
The adoption is also reflective of a history of U.S. government-backed family separation, that is as old as the U.S. itself, from the enslavement and separation of Black families, separation of indigenous families, Japanese internment, to more recent immigration policies.
As reported by AP News, a Virginia judge voided the Masts’ adoption of Baby Doe. It is important to note that it is extremely uncommon for a court to make this kind of decision. This serves as a testament to how the adoption should never have been authorized in the first place.
Despite the Court’s order, the Masts have not returned Baby Doe to her family. They continue to speak publicly about the case, feed lies through right-wing media, and perpetuate their harm to Baby Doe.
The Masts have been explicit that they are being driven by their right-wing Christian values. They have stripped Baby Doe of the ability to bond with her baby sibling and her parents. They are taking away the opportunity for her to flourish in their care, while being surrounded by her language, Afghan culture, and Muslim faith.
We led a letter in June 2023 demanding an investigation into Mast and the people who enabled him to misuse his position.
Project ANAR led a letter to the Department of Defense calling for Mast to be investigated for misusing his position to abduct an Afghan baby and cause her immense, ongoing harm.
