Afghan woman finds herself in limbo amid chaos at Kabul airport

As hundreds of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac at Kabul International Airport, desperate to flee the return of the Taliban, a young Afghan woman stood in limbo between two worlds.

In a world, Massouma Tadjik was embarking on a flight to a country she did not know, destined to become a refugee. In another, she would remain in a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, forced to erase the last 20 years of everything she had built and achieved.

Insomniac, hungry and scared, she had been waiting hours at the airport for a flight she feared would never come with questions she couldn’t answer.

“I’m at the airport, waiting for a flight but I don’t know where,” she said, speaking to The Associated Press by phone. “I am here, confused, hungry and desperate. I don’t know what to expect. Where am I going to go? How am I going to spend my days? Who will support my family?

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Tajik, a 22-year-old data analyst working for a US subcontractor helping Afghan businesses, received the call Sunday afternoon, informing her that she only had 10 minutes to leave for the airport. She had been put on an evacuation list to the United States or Mexico – she was not told anything more. She did not have a visa in her passport.

She left a friend’s apartment in Kabul with only the clothes on her back, a backpack, a laptop and her phone.

“My dreams and my plans are all in this little backpack,” she said.

As the Taliban invaded Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled, ending a two-decade campaign in which the United States and its allies had attempted to transform Afghanistan, the Tajiks and a group of Afghans working for the American media were rushed to the city’s international airport by their American friends.

The speed of the collapse of the Afghan government, the chaos that followed and the almost complete takeover of the country – just two weeks before the final withdrawal of the last American and NATO troops – shocked many. people in Afghanistan and beyond. For Afghan women, this raised fears that everything they had obtained in terms of women’s rights, the right to go to school and to work, would be quickly taken away.

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On his way to the airport, Tajik looked out the window, catching the last glimpse of the streets of Kabul, “filled with fearful silence.”

He barely had time to call his family in the western province of Herat, seized by the Taliban last week in the relentless roundup of insurgents. Before the fall, Tajik had fled the city of Herat, the provincial capital and his hometown, for the Afghan capital, “with the hope that Kabul would resist”.

“But everything has changed,” she said. “Everything collapsed before my eyes.”

Her family did not oppose her departure even though at 22 she was their breadwinner. This role brought him respect and pride, which the Taliban could take away from him. She also knew that by staying, she would become a handicap for those close to her – a young woman, trained in an international university and working with foreigners.

“When I left Herat I thought I couldn’t leave my family like this, but to stay there, I become a risk for them,” she said. If the Taliban find out, she is convinced “they will harm my family.”

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Before leaving Herat, she destroyed all evidence linking her to international organizations, including newspaper clippings. In addition to working as an American entrepreneur, in July she was also featured in a major American newspaper.

“I burned them, buried them and left,” she said.

Once at the airport, she saw Afghans desperately waiting for a plane, some bursting into tears. She was tired, she hadn’t slept for three days. Rumors have circulated that the planes may even be canceled. Others asked why there was no security and who would protect them.

“The Taliban can come anytime,” she said, her voice faltering.

Six hours passed. She heard gunshots ringing out from outside – was it the Taliban?

From where she was, she could see a plane on the tarmac, but it wasn’t hers. A mad rush of men and women followed, people passing each other, desperate to get out. She watched from a cold steel bench and thought for a moment of the stranger waiting for her on the other side.

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“I could end up halfway around the world, in a refugee camp. I have no food, no money with me,” she said. And he missed his family. “I am worried about their life,” she said. “All those years of education and hard work, hoping to have a better life and help other Afghans ended up being wasted.”

Sunday at midnight, she thought of giving up and taking a taxi back to Kabul. Herat was out of the question. She stood up, but just as quickly changed her mind.

Sleep would not come. She said the looters were wreaking havoc inside the terminal. She left with her fellow travelers to wait outside on the trail.

By daybreak, thousands of Afghans had flocked to the airport. Tajik said he saw American soldiers firing shots in the air. His flight would arrive soon, he was told.

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Later Monday, US military officials said chaos at Kabul airport left seven people dead, some of whom fell from an departing US military transport plane.

“I will never forgive the world for remaining silent,” she said. “I didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves this.”