U.S. allies across Afghanistan have been left to fend for themselves under the terror-fueled regime of the Taliban ever since the U.S. withdrew from the country nearly a year ago.
During the chaotic efforts to evacuate American partners from Afghanistan after it fell to the Taliban, The Daily Beast covered efforts to help evacuate two sisters, 20-year-old Meena and 27-year-old Nadia, both journalists who were on the Taliban’s infamous “kill list.” With the help of the Afghan war veterans group, Tarjoman.org, Meena, her mother, and brother crossed into Pakistan on Sept. 27, leaving behind their brother, his wife and their five children. After several months, the disbanded family made it to France, where they were reunited with Nadia, who was the first to evacuate the country to a refugee camp in the Netherlands.
“I never expected to see them again because of the way I left them behind, the way that I left behind people that were suffering,” Nadia told The Daily Beast. “The situation to get them out was dangerous and I was afraid I could lose them. That fear was unforgettable, like a nightmare making me wake up all of those nights without them. The day I met them I was thinking I was in a dream. I was hardly able to believe they were really there. It was a golden time.”
