An American couple will be allowed to keep the Afghan orphan they adopted as a baby despite the child’s relatives alleging that she was unlawfully abducted.

The child, referred to in legal filings as Baby Doe, became an orphan in September 2019 after her parents were killed in a US military operation in rural Afghanistan.

She was found in the rubble when she was just two months old and hospitalized at Bagram Airfield near Kabul for treatment, where she caught the attention of US Marine Joshua Mast, who decided with his wife, Stephanie, to adopt her.

In November 2019, the Masts successfully petitioned a judge in Fluvanna County, Virginia, where they lived, to grant them legal custody of the child, calling her a ‘stateless minor recovered off the battlefield.’

However, the State Department insisted at the time that the US was obliged under international humanitarian law to do everything possible to reunite the little girl with her next of kin, and she was eventually sent off to live with a cousin and his wife.

The Afghan couple raised the girl for about 18 months until Mast got in touch with concerns about the girl’s health and Afghanistan’s future under the Taliban. In 2021, he helped them leave the country for the US.

The couple said Mast took them to a refugee resettlement center and then took the little girl after a social worker suddenly informed the couple that the Masts were her legal guardians. A legal battle ensued, in which the couple asked judges to undo the adoption.

Lower courts in Virginia agreed, but the state’s highest court decided in the Masts’ favor, citing a six-month deadline in state law. On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, confirming that the girl – now seven – will stay with the Masts.

US Marine Joshua Mast will keep his adopted girl, known as Baby Doe, after the Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal from her Afghan relatives

The child became an orphan in September 2019 after her parents were killed in a US military operation in Afghanistan that also left her injured

The State Department emphasized the intention to reunite Baby Doe with her biological family roughly six weeks after Baby Doe was pulled from the rubble, The Associated Press reported.

A federal complaint filed in September 2022 by the Afghan couple detailed how Baby Doe was initially placed in the care of her paternal uncle after a fractured skull and femur, as well as second-degree burns.

The uncle then transferred his guardianship to his newlywed son and daughter-in-law as they had ‘better access to doctors and hospitals,’ according to the court filings first reported by the AP.

In the meantime, Mast had already made plans to adopt the baby, according to records obtained from the state of Virginia by the outlet.

In November 2019, Mast wrote to the Attorney General’s office that he and his wife would ‘file for adoption as soon as statutorily possible.’

Mast also enrolled the baby in the Defense Department health care system, made an appointment at a US International Adoption Clinic and asked to have her evacuated before learning that the baby had been reunited with her family.

Mast described the uncle as ‘an anonymous person of unknown nationality’ in court filings and said giving him the girl was ‘inherently dangerous.’

His attorney sent the US Embassy a ‘cease and desist’ letter warning them not to hand the baby over to no avail, the report said.

Marine Maj. Mast and his wife, Stephanie, helped the Afghan couple get to the US in August 2021

As months went by, the Masts enlisted the help of an attorney to track down the child who Mast believed was ‘in an objectively dangerous situation,’ according to court documents.

The effort paid off and the Masts’ lawyer got in touch with the Afghan couple.

Meanwhile, the Virginia state court granted the Masts a final adoption order in December 2020 since the child ‘remains up to this point in time an orphaned, undocumented, stateless minor.’

According to the Afghan couple’s suit, laws in Afghanistan prohibit the guardianship or custody of Muslim Afghan children by non-Afghan non-Muslims, such as the Masts.

The couple met Mast on the phone on July 10, 2021, around the date of Baby Doe’s second birthday.

Mast told them that the little girl could be blind, brain damaged or permanently disabled if she did not receive medical care in the US, per the filing.

That August, the US withdrew from Afghanistan and the Masts allegedly became increasingly concerned about the Taliban, telling the couple to bring Baby Doe to the US ‘before the country collapsed.’

After a long flight that included a stopover in Germany, the couple arrived at Dulles International Airport on August 29.

When offering their passports for evaluation, the couple allegedly began explaining that the child was too young to have Afghan documents.

That’s when they claim Joshua Mast pulled out an Afghan passport for the child but with the last name Mast, per the suit.

Mast encouraged the couple not to say anything about his name on the passport, saying it would simplify getting medical care for the baby in the US. 

Mast said in January 2023 that that he did not ‘think’ he had used the word adoption when communicating with the Afghan couple about the little girl

The couple were taken to refugee housing at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Virginia, per the suit. Mast allegedly told them to request that location.

On September 3, a social worker allegedly informed them that they were not Baby Doe’s lawful guardians, as the Masts had adopted her.

The Afghan couple ‘did not understand’ what adoption meant but grasped that the little girl would be taken by Mast. The woman allegedly fell to the ground crying and begging, per the suit.

In January 2023, Mast acknowledged that he did not ‘think’ he had used the word adoption when communicating with the Afghans.

‘We were trying to explain, again, in a way that they would understand, because they don’t have a concept of adoption in Afghanistan,’ he told CBS News.

His wife, Stephanie, said: ‘the understanding was very clear that it was a long-term commitment throughout the course of a childhood all the way to adulthood.’

The Court of Appeals of Virginia voided Mast’s adoption of Baby Doe in July 2024, saying he had been granted custody after misrepresenting facts to a local custody court.

However, the Virginia high court reversed that decision in February, leading to the appeal that was declined by the Supreme Court on Monday. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to attorneys for the Masts and the Afghan couple for comment.