My fiancee stood by Voice of America. America must stand by her. 

My fiancee, Ulviyya Ali, bravely reported on Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses for Voice of America for years. This made her a target of the Azerbaijani government. Today, she sits in prison, silenced and cut off from the outside world. 

The U.S. has the power to help restore her freedom. The question is, does it have the will? 

Since the founding of Voice of America, the U.S. government entrusted it with a clear mission: “telling audiences the truth.” Ulviyya has always believed deeply in this mission, even at great personal risk. In Azerbaijan, a country that ranks among the Top 10 most repressive regimes for press freedom, she reported on flagrant human rights abuses, filling a vital role as one of the country’s last remaining independent journalists.

Ulviyya was willing to take these risks, in part, because she believed she was not alone in her fight for truth. She trusted the free press principles Voice of America stands for and believed that, if those values came under attack, America would not look away.

Following President Trump’s March 2025 executive order to effectively shutter Voice of America, the U.S. government has stayed silent while Ulivyya has been locked away inside an Azerbaijani prison. It stayed silent when she was repeatedly beaten by prison guards and threatened with rape.

Ulviyya has now spent more than a year in prison on fabricated charges, including “smuggling” foreign currency and “money laundering.” She faces a sentence of up to 20 years if found guilty. Yet the U.S. government has yet to issue a statement, and the agency overseeing Voice of America, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has yet to undertake any meaningful steps to secure her........

© The Hill