>> reporter: thank you for making time for us. and don't go anywhere, there is -- the harrowing journey of a woman on afghanistan's international soccer team who said the taliban when their forces took over. i'm ayman wilkie dean, thank you.

(tense music) (gun fires) (siren blares) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language)

(dramatic string music) - like this? (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (hopeful music)

(banin speaks in foreign language) (people cheering) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (calming music) (banin speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (tamana speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

- [reporter] the taliban are on the march and gaining territory at an astonishing rate. the white flag that signifies the taliban takeover is flying in large swathes of the country right now, and they're creeping closer to the capital. (frishta speaks in foreign language) - [reporter] tonight, the afghan army is trying to hold back the taliban in the north's biggest city, mazar-i-sharif. - [speaker] there is increased concern of the government and kabul collapsing. the taliban has now taken over two thirds of the country. (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

(banin speaks in foreign language) - [reporter] incredibly significant development that has occurred. president ghani of afghanistan has left the country. (gunshots ringing) (car honks) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) - [reporter] for the very first time, we are getting a look at the taliban inside the afghan presidential palace there in kabul. (tamana speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language)

(tamana speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language) (gunshots ringing) (banin speaks in foreign language) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language)

- at that point, i really didn't know exactly how to help them, but i was determined to help. i started playing for the afghanistan women's national team in 2016. i'm an afghan-canadian. i have dual citizenship. and when the opportunity came up to play for afghanistan, i jumped on it. when afghanistan had officially fell, i had just graduated my bachelor of education program, i was working full-time. i got a phone call from the afghanistan football federation, and they asked for my help to help evacuate players from the national team. when you smell the amazing scent of gain flings... time stops. (♪♪) and you realize you're in love... steve? with a laundry detergent. (♪♪) gain flings. seriously good scent. (carolers) ♪ iphone 15 pro, your husband deserves it! ♪

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vo: when you graduate, they graduate. visit finishyourdiploma.org to find free and supportive adult education centers near you. (tense music) adult education - my name is nick mckinley, and my role in this mission was to do the overall coordination of the evacuation of these girls from afghanistan. - nick's role in the mission was totally focused on the intelligence aspect. he was aware of what was happening on the grounds. he was reevaluating how to evacuate the girls. - the folks who were leading the efforts to get the afghans out, were either private citizens like myself who were no longer part of the government, or they were government employees who had a lot of time on the ground in afghanistan, and were coordinating with those civilians.

- i'm claire russo, and i was the leader of the mission to get the girls out of afghanistan. the evacuation of the girls' soccer team wasn't written into my job description. it helps that my day job at the time was helping the us government figure out how to get people safely onto the airport and safely to evacuation. - claire russo was in charge of trying to find asylum for the girls, also being aware of what's happening on the ground as well with regards to the withdrawal, and all the details from the governmental side. (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) my role was taking care of the communication side of the mission, so i would essentially get details from the intelligence team, and then i was communicating with the girls through whatsapp, primarily voice memos.

(farkhunda speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) a lot of the girls had to pick and choose which family members they can help, because the plane just won't have enough space for your family of 10 or 12. (banin speaks in foreign language)

(tamana speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

(melancholic music)

(farkhunda speaks in foreign language) (tense music) - the first night, we had sent them to a high school, and from that location, we were supposed to get them into the secret cia base, and from there airlifted into the airport, and evacuated out of afghanistan.

(people speaking in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

- the other folks i was working with, who were gonna give us the indication that it was safe for the girls to proceed, nobody was answering their phone. we weren't hearing from anybody, and the silence meant we knew, or i knew that we were in trouble. (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (explosions booming) (banin speaks in foreign language)

(frishta speaks in foreign language) - at some point, i asked my friend who had been on that base, like, "have you heard anything about this operation?" he's like, "claire, whatever it was, it's impossible now." and he sent me a picture of just like, burning. and what he was showing me was the base being destroyed. the americans were leaving the base, and that required them to destroy anything that couldn't be in taliban hands. (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) - i had to explain to them, you know, the the smoke that you saw, the fire that you saw, that was your pathway out.

(sadaf and frishta speaking in foreign language) (sadaf laughs) - yeah? (sadaf and frishta speaking in foreign language) (sadaf laughs) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (phone rings) come on. hello? (sadaf and mom speaking in foreign language)

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(tense music) - after our first attempt failed, we sent them home and reevaluated. now, the second attempt, this time, it was gonna be through a secret gate. - and we knew where the gates were, and we knew which gates the taliban were at, and which ones they weren't. there's a gas station on the backside of the kabul airport. the girls are waiting at the gas station until their turn in the queue comes up, in order to go into the airport. (tense music) (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

(banin speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (tense music) (banin speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (gunshots ringing) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language)

- kabul had become increasingly hostile. there were sort of snap checkpoints. the taliban would just set up a checkpoint at what appeared to be a sort of random location. - so we started moving them in small groups through the mountains or hills, that are right outside of the kabul airport. (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language)

- [sadaf] it's too hard because we've come by the mountains, and we tried a lot to arrive to airport. (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

- once they didn't get in the gate, and they had been waiting there for an unbelievable amount of time, no food, no water, the level of danger just started to rise exponentially. - nick and his team said, "claire, you have to make a call as to what happens now." and i said... "we don't have a viable route out of the country right now. the girls need to go home, they need to get off the streets.

there is a curfew in effect. they cannot be, you know, at this point, casualties to the taliban." (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) - [reporter] just before midnight kabul time, a final us military flight left the afghan capital. - [reporter] as of today, the us has airlifted more than 120,000 american civilians and afghan allies out of kabul, but thousands of afghans who want to leave

are left behind for now. - this felt like a defeat in a larger way. this felt like, "this is it. now the afghans stuck in afghanistan are gonna face the reality of what this means for their country. (melancholic music) known as a loving parent. known for lessons that matter. known for lessons that matter. known for being a free spirit. no one wants to be known for cancer, but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer, fda-approved for 16 types of cancer. one of those cancers is advanced nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer, where keytruda is approved to be used with certain chemotherapies as your first treatment if you do not have an abnormal "egfr" or "alk" gene. keytruda can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during or after treatment. this may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have cough,

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(person speaks in foreign language) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) (tense music) - there's an airport in mazar-i-sharif, and if we get the girls north, there's not just an airport, but there's also border crossings. we could get these girls to uzbekistan,

we could get these girls to tajikistan, but let's get them out of kabul, because that's about to be fully taken over by the taliban. (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

(banin speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (tamana speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (tamana speaks in foreign language)

(banin speaks in foreign language) - we were waiting on some diplomatic channels to get the girls asylum, or some type of legal residency in another country. (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (people chattering in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language)

(tamana speaks in foreign language) (banin speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) ♪ febreze man: i don't about y'all, but when it comes to working from home, i gotta have every part of my house clean. that means tidying up, then spraying my febreze air mist, to leave every room smelling fresh and clean. with that done, it's time to get to work. ♪ la la la la la when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment

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(sadaf laughs) - bye-bye. (farkhunda speaks in foreign language)

(tense music) - i went to bed, and i had like a trillion missed calls from nick, which i finally woke up to, and he was like, "get the girls moving." and i was like, "okay, when?" and he's like, "right now." within three hours, we were able to get everyone funneled together, send all their documents, get them to the airport, and out. (frishta speaks in foreign language) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (tense somber music)

(frishta speaks in foreign language) (tamana speaks in foreign language) (tense somber music) (frishta speaks in foreign language) (hopeful music) (people clapping) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (tamana speaks in foreign language)

(dramatic music) (sadaf speaks in foreign language) (dramatic music) - yeah, that must be them. oh my goodness. literally the group that we've helped and spoke to every moment is right in front of us.

(group cheering) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) - love you. (people speaking in foreign language) (dramatic emotional music) - [reporter] can i ask a question? - [farkhunda] yeah. - [reporter] can you ask them what football mean to them? - yeah, of course. (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) (group speaks in foreign language) it means their life, it means their love. (people chuckling) yeah.

- [reporter] are they gonna play this week? - yeah, absolutely. actually, the girls don't know this, but we have training tomorrow with me and... (group cheers) (farkhunda speaks in foreign language) - [all] farkhunda! farkhunda! farkhunda! (group cheers) - [farkhunda] thank you, i love you guys too. (wistful soft music)

(people chattering) (sadaf chuckles) (wistful soft music continues)

(people singing in foreign language) (upbeat music)

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if you're over 50, talk to the taliban are onrmacist the march and gaining territory at an astonishing rate. there comes a point when a team's only goal is to survive. we started moving them in small groups through the mountains. that is a look at the extraordinary documentary “ayenda.” and the film's director and producer, marie margolius, joins us now. marie, it's great to see you. congratulations on this film. tell us about the story first, because we all remember those those terrible scenes. two two years ago, it was august of 2021 of the evacuation of americans from from afghanistan. and so begins the journey of this women's soccer team.

yeah. so two years ago, when the us withdrew from afghanistan and the taliban began to take control of the country, all sorts of groups of people were in danger really, and felt like their lives were at risk under this new regime. and so you saw thousands of afghans flocking to the airport trying to escape. i grew up playing soccer, and so i was particularly drawn to the stories of young female athletes that felt like their lives were at risk. and so i found out about what the afghan football federation was doing to get their girls and women to safety and found out that this youth team was headed to portugal, where they had gotten asylum after a harrowing journey out of the country. and so i met them in portugal and started filming. ayenda almost two years ago. exactly. i don't want to give away too much of the film, but

how did they get them out of the country? how did they begin? because it was so hard. once the american evacuation was over, it's hard to get anybody out of there. it was hard to get anyone out, to say the least, particularly after the us had sort of set a deadline of when they were going to pull all of their troops out and all of their forces on the ground that would offer support, getting at risk groups out. and so these girls actually got out after that deadline. and so they got out with the help of a network of veterans of the united states armed forces. a young woman in canada who was an afghan canadian soccer player herself. they had this sort of like vigilante style group of people who were working really on their own through these kind of murky, undefined channels to move the to move the girls from a world away. right.

like they're communicating with the girls on whatsapp, telling them, go here now, go there now. stay at the safe house for two weeks. and eventually got them on a plane and out of the country. and what's the concern not just that they wouldn't be able to play soccer under taliban rule, but that they would actually be targeted because they were athletes? yeah, i think at first that was certainly the concern was, you know, all sorts of people who had built lives for themselves under the united states, occupied afghanistan, whether it was someone who was supporting the us backed government or women with jobs, certainly, like i said, female athletes, musicians. they... those groups. i think there was a real fear of retaliation in the immediate aftermath. i think as time went on, if the girls had found safety in that kind of new world, there was a larger and much more profound fear.

i think that they'd essentially be erased from public life and if you look at what's happening now, it's true. it's what would have happened. they wouldn't have been able to go to school. they wouldn't have been able to play soccer. basically, anything that gave them the individuality and joy and empowerment that they were finding through soccer, those things were going to be taken from them. so i think the calculus for them was that's not a life that we want to live, even if we can be safe. that's not something that we are going to stand for. director and producer marie margolius, congratulations again great to see you. good to see you, too.