: What Afghanistan’s Women Stand to Lose #WorldNEWS Published in partnership with Rukhshana Media, an Afghan womens media organization, and The Fuller Project, a global nonprofit newsroom reporting

What Afghanistan’s Women Stand to Lose #WorldNEWS
Published in partnership with Rukhshana Media, an Afghan womens media organization, and The Fuller Project, a global nonprofit newsroom reporting on issues that affect women.
When Taliban fighters encroached on the Afghan capital Sunday, Zainab, a reporter in her mid-20s, made a decision to leave the country. She had never been abroad, but it did not deter her. If anything, it propelled her forward.
She threw some clothes into a bag, along with her passport, two mobile phones and a wad of cash before climbing into a taxi with her brother and father. They set off for the airport. Cars full of people gridlocked Kabul’s streets as thousands attempted to flee an Afghanistan soon to be under Taliban control. Afghans had watched in disbelief as major provincial capitals fell swiftly to the Taliban over a matter of days, and Kabul soon swelled with people seeking shelter.
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Only the capital — and a small patch in neighboring Panjshir province — was left.
Zainab, who does not want her last name published for security reasons and her family’s safety, has reported for American, British and German media — and was working on a months-long assignment for The Fuller Project and TIME when the Taliban seized control that day. She worried her work with foreign media would make her an easy target for the insurgents and she feared for her life.
On the way to the airport, several men on motorcycles snaked their way through the traffic before stopping at their car. They pointed their automatic rifles at the occupants, ordering everyone out. The men then robbed Zainab of the bag, the one she had packed hours before with a few essentials to leave the country. “They took everything. I was so scared, but I thought, ‘Now what if the Taliban comes for me?’” she said.
So she kept going.
They made it to the airport. Zainab said goodbye to her family and stepped inside, where she waited, without any identification or proof of who she was, for hours. As dusk arrived, the Taliban did, too, and soon shot at the large crowds that had gathered.
“People were running in all directions. I got on a plane, not even knowing where it was going. ” It was cavernous and crammed with Afghan families, standing up and jostling for room. Zainab had boarded the now-famous U. S. Air Force plane that has become symbolic of the desperate end of the American war. Photos from the flight show a mass exodus as the Taliban took the capital, sealing their victory after twenty years of battling NATO and Afghan troops.

Paula Bronstein—Getty ImagesMurals are seen along the walls at the U.