![My Escape From the Taliban My Escape From the Taliban](https://cdn.magzter.com/1377116771/1660630492/articles/-leAr2IWm1660725342041/MY-ESCAPE-FROM-THE-TALIBAN.jpg)
The text message came a little before 5 p.m. It was August 26, 2021. Eleven days earlier, the Taliban had overthrown the Afghan government. My friend-a German writer and academic-had been trying to help my family flee the country. Now she told me she had gotten my two younger sisters and me on the list for a flight to Frankfurt, a last-minute evacuation negotiated by the German government and a nonprofit group.
"What about my mom?" I asked. She didn't reply for a moment. "I was not able to get her on this flight," she answered. Please, I begged her: "My brothers are gone and my father is living with his second wife. She just has us, no one else, for God's sake please do something."
But there was nothing she could do. "These are the names that they offered me," she wrote. "I know it's a terrible choice."
She said we had 20 minutes to decide whether to stay or go. We would need to pack, then take a taxi to a secret location, where we'd meet the buses that would drive the evacuees to the airport.
Just a few weeks earlier, my life had been relatively normal. We knew the Afghan National Army was getting weaker-on the battlefield, scores of soldiers were dying and the front lines kept getting closer to Kabul. And yet, inside the city, schools, offices, and cafés were still open. People were going out to sing and dance; music played in restaurants and taxis. I was 21 and had recently started working for a newspaper, which had me traveling around the city reporting. I loved writing about people, especially the poor, whose voices were rarely heard. I wrote about how they lived, the problems they faced, the joy they experienced regardless.
Denne historien er fra September 2022-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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Denne historien er fra September 2022-utgaven av The Atlantic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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![Apocalypse, Constantly Apocalypse, Constantly](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/4302/1956198/kKl9P7EO21737118078933/APOCALYPSE-CONSTANTLY.jpg)
Apocalypse, Constantly
Humans love to imagine their own demise.
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A Palestinian American Sex and the City
Betty Shamieh's debut novel is a rebellious rom-com.
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Modi's Failure
Why India is losing faith in its strongman leader
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The Anti-Social Century
Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It's changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.
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The Wild Charity of Saint Francis
The guide we need, now that kindness is countercultural
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Where Han Kang's Nightmares Come From
In her novels, the South Korean Nobel laureate returns again and again to her countrys bloody past.
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TROPHY HUNTERS
A GROUP OF CHILDHOOD FRIENDS PULLED OFF A STRING OF THE MOST AUDACIOUS SPORTS-MEMORABILIA HEISTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. THEN THEY DID SOMETHING REALLY CRAZY.
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THE NEW RASPUTINS
Anti-science mysticism is enabling autocracy around the globe.
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ARMY OF GOD
AMERICAN CHRISTIANS ARE EMBRACING A CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT KNOWN AS THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION, WHICH SEEKS TO DESTROY THE SECULAR STATE. Now THEIR WAR BEGINS.
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WHAT NOT TO WEAR
The false promise of seasonal-color analysis