♪ tonight, after the fall of afghanistan. we're with the most vulnerable. >> afghanistan is a time bomb. and it is ticking. you have an interconnected humanitarian disaster. >> with u.s. forces gone, what happens to those left behind? >> are you the last female journalist left in afghanistan? >> no, there is a lot, but they are not showing themselves. >> desperate to be free of taliban rule. and inside the forbidden school for girls. >> this is illegal. why are you running a school and risking everything? >> this special edition of "nightline," "after the fall," will be right back.

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world, the market holds a place of special significance. where culture, community, history, converge. but look closer. something is wrong here. a subtle yet stunning paradox. wheelbarrows and carts laden high with the best the land can provide, and yet almost no one's buying. this landlocked ancient nation, ravaged by decades of war, is once again a prison for its own people. this is the afghanistan we've left behind. this is life under the rule of the taliban. starvation and poverty have become ruthless partners in the collapse of the nation. making desperation afghanistan's main export.

>> i lose my everything. every day, at night, i cry. >> reporter: health, security, human rights, now all in dire crisis. >> afghanistan is a time bomb. it is ticking. you have an interconnected humanitarian disaster. you have an emboldened foreign terrorist. then you have all the spillover effects that comes from a destabilized afghanistan. >> reporter: after the taliban forcibly overthrew the elected government, the western world retaliated, pulling all funding and freezing afghanistan's assets. billions of dollars simply disappeared from government coffers. an already fragile economy teeters close to collapse. jobs lost. prices surging. food aid suspended. >> the entire middle class of afghanistan has vanished. and 22 million people are on the verge of starvation.

>> reporter: it was just four months ago that we saw afghanistan fall. in the wake of the white house striking a deal with the taliban last year, all western forces left afghanistan. leaving the taliban to walk into the presidential palace with barely a shot fired. a catastrophe broadcast live around the world. dae bano longer a milia n e shadows. it's the government, albeit unelected and unrecognized by the world. and it seems winning the war is starting to look much easier than providing and caring for all 40 million afghans.

every day, this ritual repeats itself. and every day, the need only grows. battling hunger that will not wane. feeding lines of people that only grow longer. the hunger that stalks the land now saves its cruelest blow for the smallest of bellies. hospitals across the country overflow with malnourished children and parents desperately seeking care for their babies. >> this is a tragedy, what's going on in afghanistan right now. little mohammad here is tiny. he's 2 years old. he weighs 11 to 12 pounds. he should weigh something much closer to around 30 pounds.

he's just got a burn. his mother doesn't have the money to get the medicine he needs. >> reporter: the world health organization warning as many as 1 million afghan children could die this winter. that would be far more than the total number of deaths throughout the entire 20-year war. every single baby in this ward suffers from malnutrition. with hospitals totally reliant on foreign aid that's now been largely frozen, children are now dying because they can't get the treatment they need. how difficult is it to look after patients right now?

>> reporter: but for so many here, that's not an option. mohammad sidique's 19-month-old daughter is getting sicker by the day. >> reporter: the speed of the collapse has left shock and desperation in its wake. laila was once the very picture of progress and defiance, the symbol of afghanistan that almost was. she lived a life dedicated to her community. running this private drug rehab center, which had been the only one of its kind in kabul.

funding it through a restaurant she owned. now with the taliban in power, her world has been turned upside down. how are you? >> i'm fine, thank you. >> how are you really? >> reporter: the rehab center and her restaurant now both shuttered. her dreams of a better future for her country, of a place at the table for women, of democracy, destroyed. when the taliban came in on august the 15th, what happened with you?

>> reporter: laila's resolve is a flame that still flickers even in the darkness. today she runs a vocational training center for women, teaching them english, sewing, computer skills.

>> reporter: there are so many women like laila. women who once not only had a voice in afghanistan but a place. today, most have been silenced. this is your office? >> yeah. >> reporter: this newsroom was once filled with 50 female journalists. 49 have fled or are in hiding, fearing for their lives. leaving just one left behind. brave, undeterred zahra navi is on a mission to keep shining a light on the women of afghanistan. >> i have to hide it from my mom. >> you have to hide your work from your mom? why? >> because she will get stressed. >> she will worry that you will have problems with the taliban? >> yeah, yeah. that's why i promised her. then she said, this time if i see you, then i swear i will put you on the street. >> reporter: but it's a difficult path she treads.

taliban have largely stifled free speech here, which means every word zahra writes, every voice she records, every story she tells, puts her at risk. are you not afraid? >> yeah, of course. i'm scared too much, i'm afraid too much, of course. >> but despite the danger, you still insist you must stay? >> yeah. you know, because if you were here instead of me, i'm sure you would do the same. >> are you the last female journalist left in afghanistan? >> no, there is a lot. but the problem that is they are not working. and they are not showing themselves. when we come back -- >> we've changed vehicles to try and make ourselves less conspicuous. >> with women's rights suppressed, we go inside an underground world with the highest stakes. >> this is illegal. why are you running a school and risking everything? >> and american weapons in the hands of the taliban. >> now the taliban and their

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the silence is haunting. school hallways that now only echo with the ghosts of broken dreams. this is a tragedy frozen in time. a tableau of what nearly was. under taliban rule, education

for high school girls and women has all but vanished. once-bustling schools filled with open books, raised hands, and the chatter of budding ambition -- now lost. dark. empty. lifeless. already more than 2.5 million girls have been forced to halt their education. but take a turn through some alleys and back roads. you'll find a quiet revolution is under way. we just pulled off the main road, and actually we've changed vehicles to try and make ourselves less conspicuous. and that's because we're going to film at a secret underground school. salaam, hello! >> reporter: this former government worker and tv presenter is undaunted. every day she gathers young girls in her classroom, desperate to learn yet banned from doing so by the taliban.

but every lesson carries a grave risk. this is illegal. why are you running a school and risking everything? are you not worried the taliban could come and arrest you, or even worse? >> reporter: what you're witnessing is truly remarkable. even in the most dire of circumstances, these girls show up, eager to learn, eager to engage, eager to defy what the taliban expects them to be.

what do you want to be when you grow up? >> reporter: the classroom may be small. it's dark, cramped, cold. but it burns bright with hope and resistance. the taliban wants the world to recognize them as the legitimate government. but as they move from resistance

to rulers, they have an insurgency of their own to battle, with isis and other terrorist groups now gaining ground. and there's another sobering reality. these aren't the afghan soldiers we left behind to protect the country. these are taliban fighters, holding american guns, wearing american camouflage, paid for by western taxpayers. >> taliban are now together with their foreign terrorist allies, now the most well-equipped terrorist group on planet earth. it's a tragedy, but it was a political decision that president biden took. and it's going to haunt him for many, many years to come, and his administration. >> reporter: the international airport in kabul is still one of the main arteries for the outside world into afghanistan. >> yes, another taliban checkpoint. we've been given accreditation by the taliban leadership to allow us to move through there. but even so, every half mile or

so, we're stopped, we're checked, and eyed with suspicion. today it's controlled by the taliban and commander malavi mohammad salaam assad. we know that isis and daesh carried out a number of attacks here. how important, how much of a problem, is security for you? i'd like to ask you about the humanitarian situation in afghanistan. why are things so bad right now?

after 20 years of war with the west and four months trying to govern the country, the truth, despite what the taliban says, is far more uncertain and desperate. but amidst the turmoil, suffering and loss, there exists another truth. one that can't be ignored. it's found in afghanistan's teachers. its students. its journalists. its women. afghanistan was given a taste of freedom, of a different world. the taliban's rise to power may have undone so much in the country, pulling at its very fabric, driving so many abroad. something remains here. something strong, defiant. >> the thing is that, still i have hope. maybe someone will think that it's crazy.

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