you earned it. goodnight. tonight, the women and girls fighting to keep their rights in a war-torn afghanistan. >> my wish is to raise the woman's voice. >> positive things, our education will change everything. >> the former child bride defying extremism, living freely. and the woman trying to broker an agreement with the taliban. >> we are negotiating, we are talking, we are using the power of words over the bullets. >> as u.s. troops withdraw, who will be left to keep the peace? >> in your analysis, president biden's just made a terrible mistake? >> history will prove him wrong. >> this special edition of "nightline," "the left behind," will be right back. the source r in your home... ...could be all your soft surfaces?

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♪ ♪ so when we are making our traditional food -- >> reporter: it's a delicate

task to make. >> when she turns it and turns it back, it's like a half circle. >> reporter: a dash of salt, flour, chives, potato, rolled with love and care. >> you're blessed to have so many daughters. is it good? or it needs more honey? she wants more sweetness. >> she likes sweet. >> reporter: the meal is traditional. their lives are anything but. amina and salman's daughters live in stark contrast to generations of afghan girls before them. >> why is it so important for you that your children have a good education? >> because there's no difference between boy and girls me. they are equal. and sometimes they can do better than the boys, yeah? >> it's our generation, so we girls, we boys, we are studying, we all are growing all together. we all will be educated. that's a positive thing.

our education will change everything. >> reporter: but that future now at risk as u.s. troops withdraw from their country, opening the door for the taliban to possibly regain control here. >> your daughters, they said they were worried about when the americans leave. will the schools still be open? will the taliban come? are you worried? or are you confident about the future? >> you see there? my cabinet? >> you've got the eiffel tower on the shelf. >> reporter: they're like any other teenage girls. their vision of the world full of wonder, minds overflowing with imagination. >> oh, that's lovely. >> i have drawn this. >> that's very good. >> reporter: dreams of a different life far away from home. >> i'd like to go to canada for

attending university. because i heard that they are respecting of our people so much. >> oh, wow. >> do you love this? >> that's very dark. >> and that's me, because two years ago i cut my hair like this, like one side was like boy. >> did you? >> and other side was like girl. >> were your parents happy? >> they don't have any problem. >> reporter: it's a simple joy rooted in a complex history. the taliban ruled afghanistan with an iron fist in the 1990s. an oppressive, fundamentalist regime steeped in an extreme interpretation of islamic sharia law. in this afghanistan, women were denied even basic rights. unable to leave home on their own. banned from school and most jobs. forced to wear the burqa. unable to speak out. >> i cannot talk about women's rights.

it's collapsed. >> reporter: and just being accused of breaking the rules meant being beaten in public. stripped of their dignity. many were brutally executed. in recent years, these violations continue in some areas the militants control. this is the reality of life under the taliban. after 9/11, the united states invaded this country to find osama bin laden. and dismantle his al qaeda forces and the taliban who sheltered them. it became america's longest war. 20 years of fighting, costing the lives of nearly 50,000 afghan civilians and more than 2,400 american service members. but with it, american forces removed the taliban from power. giving rise to a new

afghanistan. one where many women and girls n the enter the workforce after years of exclusion. the dreams the sisters share forged in these classrooms. >> my wish is to raise the woman's voice. what really i want to be a very well known journalist. i will go for an interview in front of the boss. the main reason, what is the is- main wish that you hear, i would tell him that i want to sit in that chair that you are sitting, i really want that. >> reporter: this is what the taliban fears, open books, raised hands, questions, opinions, learning. a generation of young gir i want poli country. >> you want to be a politician? >> yes. >> president? >> no.

>> reporter: the gains unimaginable for so long, but fragile, now hanging in the balance as american forces begin to withdraw from afghanistan. girls and women here have the most to lose. their futures, afghanistan's future uncertain once more. >> if the regime in particular, everything, all of our minds, all of our hopes would be closed. >> reporter: kabul today is a city teeming with life. and it's women like laila who and it's women like laila who have come to symbolize this area >> reporter: she drives, something still rare for most women in this country.

>> reporter: everything laila stands for flies in the face of the taliban. unashamedly, her hair uncovered, choosing instead to adorn it with flowers. she lives a life dedicated to her community. running this private drug rehab center, the only one of its kind in kabul. and she funds it through a restaurant she owns. what you do, what you say, and i'm sorry to say, the way that you look and dress, is really dangerous afghanistan. don't t you tdrlr,

>> reporter: her defiance forged from a life not always her own. she was a child bride at just 12 years old, giving birth to her first child a year later. her life, life of all women in afghanistan, is not yet where she wants it to be. the progress is still wildly uneven, and now under siege. >> reporter: are you hopeful about the future? or are you concerned?

>> reporter: behind these guards, behind these gates, lives one of the most protected >> hello, good morning. >> reporter: fasia koufey, one of afghanistan's leading political figures, her existence a slap in the face to the vision of the taliban. a fearless advocate for her country, and most of all, its women. the taliban regard what is happening as victory for them. is this defeat for the women and girls of afghanistan? >> it is. it is. we have tried in the past three years to take the destiny in our hands, our destiny, and be responsible and be part of those major decisions that usually women have not been part of that. >> reporter: her crusade has also made her a target. the garden may look like an oasis but it's also her shield.

just last year, as saying attempt in a high-speed car chase, her daughter next to her. >> they removed bullets from here, hit from here and all the way went to here. i spent two weeks in the hospital and went to the negotiations with my hand in cast. >> reporter: she's one of the few women who's been negotiating with the taliban on behalf of her government, trying to broker peace in her country. >> when you are in the room with a group that only 20 years back did not recognize women as equal citizens of this country, equal class citizens. to negotiate with them to allow you to run for presidency, to allow you to go to school, to allow you to have a job with dignity, to allow you to go out of your home without judging on your appearance. that is not easy. but my hope was that at least it's not violent. we are negotiating. we are talking. we are using the power of words over the bullets. since last year when we started the negotiations, 400 women hav

assassinations. >> reporter: can i ask? targeted because they're women? and targeted because they're empowered, they have a voice? >> targeted for both. >> reporter: she may dream of a world where words are more powerful than bullets, but those dreams must be secured by armed guards and bullet-proof cars. forever on alert. >> i think i have something that i need to accomplish for the betterment of this society. something inside me does not let me give up. i mean this country has so much potential. economic potentials and everything. but the war has taken everything away from us. when we come back, staring down the taliban. can these men keep afghanistan safe? and our exclusive face-to-face with the taliban. >> has the taliban just defeated america? did you know prilosec otc

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♪ this is the tragedy of war, draped in the flag. the solemn duty of honoring the fallen that american soldiers and marines have had to carry for almost 20 years. three administrations. three commanders in chief saluting the fallen on the battlefields of afghanistan. >> i'm now the fourth united states president to preside over american troop presence in afghanistan. i will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.

>> reporter: i've covered this war since it began. >> the marines have suddenly come under tire by a taliban position -- >> reporter: witnessed the gut-wrenching battles of soldiers and marines and the dogged determination of their enemy. now, with foreign forces withdrawing, many are left with troubling questions. what was it all for? and what happens to those whose lives we changed and promised so much? >> there's a famous saying about the americans, that they never lose wars, they just lose interest. >> what do you say to the mothers, to the fathers? why should they continue to send their sons and daughters to afghanistan when they no longer see the point in this fight? >> either fight them here or wait and fight them near your shores. i think the events of 9/11 proved that. and i hope and pray that it doesn't happen again, by the united states neglecting

afghanistan. >> so in your analysis, president biden's just made a terrible mistake? >> history will prove him wrong. >> reporter: what's left behind is a gathering storm of instability. more than 1,700 afghan civilians lost their lives in the first three months of this year alone. each day there are scores of terrible attacks. this is the reality of what america leaves behind. and the threat of terrorist groups like al qaeda and isis fester in the shadows. the taliban signed a deal with the united states, but not with the afghan government. afghan forces have done most of the fighting and most of the dying over the last 20 years. and now american troops are leaving. they're going to have to handle it on their own. you don't have to travel far to see how thin this line of defense is. the other afghanistan lies just down the road.

in this afghanistan, the streets are controlled by the fundamentalists we went to war against 20 years ago. stronger, more confident than ever, no longer in the shadows. in an undisclosed location in kabul, we meet muslim afghan. just last year he was released from prison as part of the u.s./taliban deal. today he's back with the militants. has the taliban just defeated america? >> reporter: is it your dream to see the white flag of the taliban flying again in kabul? >> reporter: there are many concerns that if the taliban

come back to power, the americans leave, the women and girls in afghanistan will lose out. what do you say to those concerns? >> reporter: would it be acceptable for girls to learn science? engineering? medicine, to become doctors, to become lawyers, to become journalists? are these acceptable? >> the taliban commander i met reassured me girls would be given full access to education, be allowed to become doctors, engineers, scientists.

is he telling the truth? >> we would love to see these kind of statements as part of the public policy of taliban. being announced, you know that they are not against the progress of their nation, women included. >> afghanistan has had 40 years of war. do you believe there will be a time of peace? >> i'm really hopeful that peace should come. but if there is the power is theirs, there will not be peace, i'm sure of it. if we study, if we work, there will be peace. when we return, the hope for peace. i'm mayim bialik, and i love brains—it's why i became a neuroscientist. i also have a brain. and i love the brain supplement neuriva plus for both of those reasons.

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♪ in this chapter, a new afghanistan's been born.

its future yet to be written. but listen closely and you'll hear its promise. >> i'm masura and i'm going to be an international businesswoman. >> declared by girls who have experienced only war. >> i'm madea and i want to be a journalist for people and women's voices. >> yet they dare to dream for peace. >> sometimes these things can make humans be stronger. pain can make us go forward, to search