In September 2016, after two years separated from her husband and an exhaustive community campaign, Iranian asylum seeker Mojgan Shamsalipoor was finally released from immigration detention into the loving arms of her family and friends in Brisbane.
It was a rare moment of pure joy for the 23-year-old, who fled her home half a decade ago after being raped and beaten by her violent stepfather and offered as a bride to a man in his late 50s.
When Mojgan first arrived in Australia in 2012, she was allowed to live in the community while the Government considered her request for ongoing protection.
Mojgan is free today! She has been released on a bridging visa. More details to come!
Posted by Free Mojgan on Tuesday, 20 September 2016
She found sanctuary in a local high school, and at a youth camp met the love of her life and future husband, a young Iranian refugee named Milad Jafari.
“From that moment, I saw her eyes, I went, ‘This is it’. I couldn’t talk. I was like, ‘Wow’,” Milad told the ABC’s Australian Story program, which aired its second episode dedicated to the couple’s plight last night.
“We were so happy before all these things happened.”
The couple married, moved in together and became much-loved members of Brisbane's Yeronga State High School community as they planned their future together in safety.
For a brief period, life for Mojgan was good and as her trauma slowly began to subside, her growing happiness was palpable to her teachers and fellow students.
But in 2015, just months before completing her HSC, her temporary bridging visa was revoked and she was locked up — first in Brisbane and then in Darwin.