‘We’ve left these precious people to the wolves’
OKC woman working to help women safely exit Afghanistan
An Oklahoma City woman who helped facilitate the safe passage of 10 Afghan girls as the Taliban assumed control is still working to help even more women find a way out.
“We’ve left these precious people to the wolves and they deserve to become the best version of themselves in life just like we can,” said Allyson Reneau, an Oklahoma city resident organizing extraction efforts as Taliban control tightens.
Reneau is a “full-blooded Sooner” with “a lot of grit,” by her own description. The mother of 11, nine girls and two boys, returned to school at the age of 48.
After attending the University of Oklahoma, she received a master’s degree in international relations, with a focus in U.S. Space Policy, from Harvard University. Reneau ended up in Washington, D.C., and while working on an annual event hosted by Explore Mars Inc., called The Humans to Mars Summit, she first met the young Afghan women who make up the all-girl robotics team.
“We thought we want to give these girls a chance to immerse themselves in the space industry, to brush
shoulders with astronauts, to meet the leaders and just expose them to the people that are living the dream that they want to have,” Reneau said.
‘An overwhelming, dreadful feeling’
Reneau said she immediately took to the girls, who in some ways reminded her of her own daughters. After the event they kept in touch via text. In early 2021, as many of the young women finished high school, they began seeking educational opportunities outside of Afghanistan. Reneau was in contact with several of them and they were working to facilitate future steps.
“But on August the 3rd, … I got out of bed and I had an overwhelming, dreadful feeling that they were in danger. At that point Afghanistan hadn’t collapsed yet,” she said. “But I couldn’t shake it, and so I thought I’m going to have to go way above my pay grade and start calling some powerful people that I don’t deserve to talk to.”
Taking on the mantra she learned at NASA, Reneau said, “Failure was not an option.” Through hundreds of texts with an Afghan woman now living in New York City who sponsors the robotics team, and conversations with governments across the globe, the two set to work to find a way to bring the girls out.
“I was determined to fly to Qatar just in case that’s where they ended up,” Reneau said. “I bought a one-way ticket.”
Before flying, she reached out to a former roommate from Washington who was living in Qatar. That roommate, employed at the U.S. Embassy, helped the final pieces fall into place. Reneau was told to stay in the United States and keep working things on her end, while her friend in Qatar got to work overseas.
“She went back at midnight to the embassy and stayed up all night preparing their passports and all their documentation to present to the officials in her embassy, and they loved it,” Reneau said. “They leaped into action, got in touch with their people on the ground in Kabul and next thing you know these girls are on the way to the airport.”
The Qatari government agreed to help the U.S. Embassy transport the young women out of Afghanistan on a plane. They managed to do so as the Taliban perimeter went into effect and chaos at the airport began to escalate, Reneau said.
Though she was in disbelief when it happened, Reneau said getting the text that they were airborne was “one of the greatest days of her life.”
“I believe in God and I believe that He met us halfway,” she said. “I still am scratching my head wondering how this miracle happened.”
The 10 girls are safe and being staged in a secure place now as they prepare the future, she said. She’s watching as opportunities for them roll in.
“It’s interesting that in such a crisis, it actually sparked for their dreams to come true,” she said. “They’re sweet, they’re grateful, they’re brilliant, they’re humble, they’re courageous and these are the kind of girls that we want to invest in.
Work continues to help others escape Afghanistan
There are still other members of the team and mentors that Reneau is working to get out. Additionally, after news broke of her work to help the robotics team get to safety, Reneau began receiving messages from other women in Afghanistan needing help.
“Professional, educated women — lawyers, judges — that were immediately fired when the Taliban took over and they are in hiding, they have letters sent to them that the Taliban is hunting them,” she said. “They’re terrified. How could I not help them?”
The process is different for the new group than it was for the robotics team, Reneau said.
Meanwhile as she works to find solutions, she said some women are being beaten to death or shot and others are leaving their children to try to keep them safe. Still, the list of those needing help keeps growing.
“I need people to pray. It’s going to take another miracle to get this next group out,” she said. “It doesn’t matter their skin color or their race or their religion, every soul is valuable to God and deserves a chance to fulfill their destiny.”
Reneau also has a Facebook fundraising page, the proceeds from which will be distributed to the women who are helped as they settle in new places. People who want to help should watch how things are developing, Reneau said. As the Afghan people move to new places, they’ll need help and she urges people to watch for those opportunities.
For Reneau, her desire to help is driven by a combination of a moral obligation and wanting to honor the sacrifices of the men and women in the armed forces, who are the reason many of these people are alive today, she said. Reneau’s oldest son fought in the war for seven years, making this connection close to heart.
“My son has permanent loss in some areas that he’ll have for the rest of his life,” she said. “I want him, and I want all of the brave and courageous service men and women, to know that their labor was not in vain and all of these lives coming out I’m dedicating to them.”