When the Taliban took Kabul, Hosseini knew the life she knew was gone | USA TODAY
Published Date: 9/30/2021
Source: USA TODAY
"It was time now. I had to get out of Kabul." Journalist Fatema Hosseini describes her escape from Afghanistan as the Taliban closed in. RELATED: How much did the war in Afghanistan cost? https://youtu.be/7RCo0AwwJZ8 Fatema had never lived under Taliban rule and didn’t intend to now. Her family left for neighboring Iran when she was 3 months old because of the group’s persecution of Harazas and its abhorrent treatment of women. She returned at 10, after the 2001 U.S. invasion ousted the Taliban from power. She later interviewed Taliban fighters and reported about women's lives now and then – then being a time of moral darkness when women and young girls were excluded from public life and education. When they were beaten publicly for daring to venture outside without a male guardian, for wearing nail polish, for listening to pop music. She has reported from remote, rural areas where the Taliban never really went away. Her hashtags on Twitter alone were enough to get her killed. Virtually no one expected Kabul to fall so quickly. The Taliban promised to honor women's rights, but their bloody track record suggested they would not. » Subscribe to USA TODAY: http://bit.ly/1xa3XAh » Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY: https://bit.ly/3oAEPFy » USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR. #afghanistan #journalists #taliban