Two Young Afghan Sisters’ Journey Across Afghanistan to Escape the Taliban
Taliban fighters armed with AK-47s fired warning shots over the heaving crowd at the entrance to Kabul airport. Fourteen-year-old
Maryam Mohammadi
shuddered. Her 3-year-old sister, Mehrsa, started to cry. “Don’t be scared,” the older girl said. “It’s just a game.”
The sisters and their grandmother had been standing for hours on Aug. 21, part of a group that had been cleared to fly out of the Taliban-controlled Afghan capital. They would head first to Ukraine and then hoped to join the girls’ parents in the U.S.
They had been trying for days to get into the airfield, the hub of U.S.-led evacuation efforts. And now they were just a few yards from the gate. They could see the Marines and a group of Ukrainian soldiers waiting inside to help them to safety.
Maryam was sure this time they would make it. Earlier in the day, she sent a message to