‘Why are you out?’: Afghan women journalists recall Taliban sweep

Female journalists who fled the country tell Al Jazeera they were left with no choice amid fears of Taliban persecution.

Kabul, Afghanistan – In the days leading up to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15, Sama (not her real name), a 27-year-old female journalist, says she tried to stay positive, hoping things will be different this time and that the Taliban might have changed its ways since the 1990s. “I have interviewed them. I have interacted with them,” she said of her travels across the nation’s provinces, during which she interviewed many Taliban members. Comforted by the group’s fighters treating her “well” during those reporting trips, Sama decided to make a film on life in Taliban-controlled Kabul.