tv 60 Minutes CBS February 26, 2023 7:00pm-8:00pm PST
7:00 pm
cbs celebrates black history month. when we drove alongside the river, we didn't let the speedometer dip below 70 miles an hour. on one bank is the city. on the other, russian tanks, artillery, and snipers. a fast-moving target is hard to hit. >> it's very dangerous in kherson now. why are you still here? >> translator: if you were this old, where would you go? what has happened to the
7:01 pm
women of afghanistan since the american military left kabul? to find out, we went, of course, to rwanda. yes, rwanda. how are you all doing? >> great! >> this is the story of a brave afghan woman who helped evacuate more than 200 afghan girls and educators to safety in africa where they're studying in hopes of one day returning to their homeland. do you think that you'll become leaders? >> yes. >> i want to be a surgeon. >> i want to help poor people in afghanistan. >> i want to be a politician woman. >> a politician? >> and, finally, from zahra -- >> i want to be a spy. >> a spy? >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more tonight on "60 minutes."
7:02 pm
if you have heart failure, entrust your heart to entresto, a medicine specifically made for heart failure. entresto is the #1 heart failure brand prescribed by cardiologists. it was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. heart failure can change the structure of your heart, so it may not work as well. entresto helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. and just imagine where a healthier heart could take you. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium.
7:03 pm
entrust you heart to entresto. i was born on the south side of chicago. it has been a long road, but now i'm working for schwab. i love to help people understand the world through their lens and invest accordingly. you can call us christmas eve at four o'clock in the morning. we're gonna always make sure that you have all of the financial tools and support to secure your financial future. that means a lot for my community and for every community. you want a loan to build a factory in america? you can't do that. this is what we were up against. nobody builds factories in the us anymore. you can't do that. experts claimed you couldn't do what we did. you want to hire workers here in the states? you can't do that. weathertech has been proving them wrong, for over 33 years. building our own factories, employing thousands, and making world-class products, right here in america.
7:04 pm
because when you buy something made in america...we all win. weathertech. (cecily) i love puppies... (seth) well i love that i switched to verizon. my other network used to drive me crazy! (cecily) yeah... and with welcome unlimited for just $25 dollars, i love that we both got an awesome network and saved money doing it. (seth) i love that it's guaranteed for 3 years. (cecily) ok now what i love is that we got to keep our phones. more savings! (seth) what i love... (cecily) hey! we're sittin' on a sign here. (vo) switch and get welcome unlimited for $25 a line. guaranteed for 3 years. the savings that last on the network you want. verizon
7:05 pm
tonight, holly williams on assignment for "60 minutes." in the year since russia invaded its neighbor, ukraine, vladimir putin's army has succeeded in capturing just one regional capital - the city of kherson. it was a key objective in the kremlin's attempt to seize ukraine's black sea coast. the eight-month occupation of kherson ended in november, when ukraine's army forced the russians to retreat back across the dnipro river.
7:06 pm
but the city's residents are now under fire almost every day from enemy artillery positioned less than a mile away. we visited kherson this month, and from what we witnessed, russia's goal appears to be the destruction of what it cannot control. when we drove alongside the river, we didn't let the speedometer dip below 70 miles an hour. on one bank is the city. on the other, russian tanks, artillery, and snipers. a fast-moving target is hard to hit. >> people in our city, they are the target. the enemy is crazy. >> halyna luhova used to be a school teacher and a city council member. ukraine's president put luhova in charge of rebuilding
7:07 pm
kherson, effectively its mayor. we watched as she managed aid distribution, power outages and an avalanche of problems caused by russian shelling. kherson has been shelled more than 2,000 times in the last three months. >> is there a pattern to what the russians are hitting with the shelling, or is it random? >> during a long period of occupation for eight months, they know all the information as for our infrastructure. so they know everything. >> because they occupied the city, they know where the schools are, they know where the humanitarian aid points are -- >> yes, they know. >> would you prefer it if all civilians left the city? >> it will be better for them, i think. you know, our people go to bed
7:08 pm
every day, and they don't know exactly if they will be awake in the morning. it's really terrible. >> before the war, 300,000 people lived in kherson. now about 60,000 remain. more than 80 people have been killed by the shelling. this fire station and 19 medical facilities have been hit. nothing, it seems, is sacred. there's a bomb crater right outside the church of the exaltation of the cross. inside, it was below freezing. ♪ 84-year-old valentina syryk told us she was asking god to give the russians common sense. >> it's very dangerous in kherson now. why are you still here?
7:09 pm
if you were this old, where would you go, she asked us. it's the elderly and those without the means to leave who have stayed. ♪ >> that's where it landed, is that right? >> we pulled up to this apartment building just hours after it took a direct hit. iryna barandych was cleaning up the damage to her sister's apartment up on the fourth floor. >> she's okay. >> nobody was hurt. ilyna lives in one of only three apartments still occupied. >> why would they hit your building? because they simply want to annihilate ukrainians, she said. what other reason could there be? they've grown used to cleaning up the debris in kherson.
7:10 pm
but so much more has been shattered. >> and it was the war. it was almost -- no people here. >> in english we would call it a ghost town. >> katya fateeva has refused to leave kherson despite offers of a place to stay from friends outside ukraine. ♪ her son max, who's 9 years old, started piano lessons last summer. fateeva told us it's been a good distraction because it's unsafe to go outside and play. >> we still believe that everything will be good soon, and our victory will come and our life will return to our ordinary way. >> why are you so certain that things will go back to normal? >> translator: we are on our land and we believe we are ukrainians. and we want to live in ukraine. and nothing will change this, you see? >> so -- >> nothing.
7:11 pm
>> you heard that, right? >> yes. >> it's as if nothing happened. you don't shake -- you don't even turn your head. >> no. >> you've got used to it? >> yes. we have got used to this, all this. because every bomb, every attack will take us to our victory. >> kherson's defiance was obvious as the kremlin's troops rolled into town last march. thousands demonstrated. within days, russian soldiers opened fire and began arresting protesters. residents were ordered to use russian currency and schools were told to adopt a russian curriculum. fateeva would have none of it. >> translator: we continued studying in our ukrainian school by zoom online with our teachers, with our programs. >> that was illegal. >> yes, of course it was illegal from their side, but they tried to take our children there.
7:12 pm
>> the russians wanted to control what your children were thinking, what they learned. >> yes, yes, you're absolutely right. they really want to control our people's mind, what to do, what not to do, and so on. >> we realized where fateeva's courage came from when we met her father. valdimir sagayak manages a foster home just outside the city. after hearing reports that ukrainian children were being deported to russia, sagayak decided to hide 46 kids in his care. he placed some of the children with their distant relatives. the rest were sent off with foster home staff. fake documents helped them get past russian checkpoints. >> what are these stories you came up with to explain new children appearing in families? >> translator: we had a young kindergarten teacher who took in five kids from 5 to 16 years of age.
7:13 pm
and we worked out a story for her that her sister was in her last month of pregnancy and she was looking after her sister's kids. with the help of photoshop, we created a doctor's note. that's how they got through. >> more than 6,000 ukrainian children have been taken into russian custody since the war began, according to research by yale university. this is security camera video from the day last june when russian soldiers came to vladimir sagayak's foster home. he told them he'd sent the children back to their families. >> if the russians had found out exactly what you did, that you hid 46 children, what do you think they might have done to you? >> translator: i think i would not be talking to you today. >> hundreds of others who resisted were brought to this place, known as "the pit."
7:14 pm
>> and then what's this to the right here? andriy andryushchenko told us he was tortured here with electric shocks to his head and genitals. >> tied you to the chair. people he knew were being beaten in adjoining cells. >> you could hear the screams of your friends. >> every time. >> while they were being tortured. >> every time, yes. >> his crime was painting pro-ukrainian graffiti. but by november, the occupiers lost their grip on kherson, squeezed between the advancing ukrainian army and the river. they withdrew. the sounds of celebration were soon replaced by this -- the new tyranny of russian artillery. >> the whole thing is underground. >> it's too risky for mayor halyna luhova and her team to work in the town hall.
7:15 pm
so the administration of a city the size of st. louis has been crammed into this basement. >> there are a lot of problems we have, and you see the people who solve them. >> and i'm just noticing, it's nearly all women. >> there are a lot of women here. also, yes, it's right. >> they've had to improvise. to keep the buses running, parts have been salvaged from those hit by shells. and the heat at this hospital is off most days, so that wisps of steam don't catch the attention of russian artillery spotters. >> i've heard that you like to describe kherson as invincible -- "neslame." >> neslame. >> why did you choose that word? >> we are unbreakable. all the people of ukraine are unbreakable. >> but luhova believes russian collaborators still lurk in the city.
7:16 pm
>> they phone them to the left bank of the river, and they say where i am, where our team is, what we are doing. they say everything. >> feeding information to the russians. >> yes, yes. >> and telling them what to hit? >> yes, yes. it's true. >> and what should happen to those collaborators now? >> we have -- to kill them. i think that they have no right to live. >> no right to live. >> no right to live. >> it was the bluntness of a person who has been targeted by russian artillery seven times. >> the enemy is in front of us on the left bank of the river. and so this place is very dangerous. >> they're a few hundred yards away. >> this is my house. >> this was your house? >> yes. >> luhova left kherson for six months during the occupation
7:17 pm
because she feared she'd be killed. while she was gone, her house was burned down. she blames the collaborators. >> all i had during my life. this is my house. we together built this house with the family. with my husband and with my two sons. it's tragedy. >> a tragedy. >> for me and for people. >> halyna luhova told us she tries not to sleep in the same place two nights in a row and travels in an armored van. >> it's dangerous, but i have to do my work. i have to help people. i have to be with them with humanitarian aides. it's my duty, so i do it. >> this city will remain under fire, so long as the russians are on the opposite side of the river. ♪ only if ukraine's military can
7:18 pm
push them back will katya fateeva's son enjoy a walk outside with his grandfather. >> do you think kherson will ever go back to what it was like before? >> i am sure it will become much, much better because people have changed. our minds have changed. maybe sometimes we didn't ukrainians. really, that we are- and now with the help of this war, we understand who we are, what we want, and -- that most important, we understand what we don't want. >> what it takes to report from ukraine. >> unfortunately, we got spotted by some russian tanks, and then took artillery for two hours. >> at 60minutesovertime.com, sponsored by pfizer. the last few years have been hard.
7:19 pm
help protect against covid-19, including severe illness, with the vaccine made by pfizer and biontech, called comirnaty. you shouldn't get the vaccine if you've had an allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. serious allergic reactions can happen. rare cases of inflammation of the heart muscle and outer lining have been reported. people with weakened immune systems may have lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects were injection site pain, redness and swelling, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever. talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
7:20 pm
7:22 pm
whatever your view of the u.s. decision to end america's longest war and withdraw troops from afghanistan, that country's fall to the taliban in august of 2021 has unquestionably plunged that nation once again into a deep crisis. millions are facing famine, and the economy is in shambles. those suffering the most are afghan women and girls. the taliban has closed girls' schools beyond 6th grade, and, just recently, barred women from universities. that means that girls are banned from anything beyond a grade-school education. tonight, though, we're going to tell you a story of hope, about a group of afghan girls who are in school.
7:23 pm
they're at a school called sola, the afghan word for peace, and also short for school of leadership afghanistan. it was started by a young afghan woman named shabana basij-rasikh, who knows firsthand the power of an education. and though they had to flee afghanistan in a harrowing escape, we found the girls of sola back in the classroom, half a world away. these are the busy streets of kigali, rwanda -- a land-locked african nation that was once the site of a horrific genocide that killed nearly a million and left 2 million refugees. rwanda is now at peace and has become an unlikely place of refuge for the last year and a half, to the girls of sola. and they seem to be settling in. >> are you ready for this? >> yes. >> the evening we arrived at
7:24 pm
sola's temporary campus here, the 6th and 7th grades were holding a geography competition. classes here are taught in english. the girls were racing to identify nearly 200 countries all around the globe. they're wearing masks not to protect against covid but to hide their identities to protect their families still in afghanistan. >> my name is zahra. >> zahra's family has left the country, so she can show her face. suraya's and najia's are still there. >> you knew every country in the world. >> yes. >> you like it? >> it was fun. >> you like contests? >> yes. [ laughter ] >> they're so passionate. they're so active. they're so eager. they're so interested. >> shabana basij-rasikh is sola's founder and single-minded leader. >> how are you all doing? >> great! >> at 32, and just over 5 feet tall, shabana started creating
7:25 pm
sola when she was still a student herself. her story -- and her commitment to educating girls -- goes back to 1996 when afghanistan fell to the taliban the first time. she was 6 years old, and all girls' schools were closed. but shabana's parents, a former general and an educator, refused to keep their daughters locked up at home. they heard about a secret school run out of a former principal's living room, and saw an opportunity, despite the danger, for shabana and her older sister to be educated. >> the taliban did not allow women to go outside alone. so my parents dressed me up as a boy so that i could accompany my sister to and from that secret school. that was -- >> whoa -- >> -- the best way that both of us could receive an education. >> oh, my god, so they dressed you as a boy -- >> my mom cut my hair. i wore boys' clothes. >> pants.
7:26 pm
>> pants and t-shirt, and, yeah, buzz cut. >> and the family carefully mapped out their routes. >> you know, you take different streets every day so you don't create a routine. the same shopkeeper at a certain convenience store should not notice you every day. >> so you were always afraid, or they were always afraid, you'd get caught. >> they never knew when or if we would return home. >> but even after a close call where shabana and her sister were followed and begged their parents to stop sending them to school, her mom and dad said no. >> they told us things like, "you could be forced to leave your home. you could be forced to become a refugee. you could lose any material possessions that you have. but the one thing that can never be taken away from you is your education." >> when the taliban fell after the u.s. invasion in 2001, shabana went to a real school for the first time, and she
7:27 pm
excelled, winning a place in a state department program to spend a year of high school in the u.s. >> i was randomly placed with this lovely host family in wisconsin where i gained 40 pounds. [ laughter ] >> but that wasn't the only way the year changed her. >> what struck me the most was living in a society for the first time in my life where girls had no concerns whatsoever that their freedom to attend school could be taken away from them at any time, which is something that every single afghan girl who's lucky enough to go to school lives with, and you can't blame them, can you? >> no, i can't, because afghanistan is the only country in the world that won't let girls go to school. >> yeah, so, um -- >> why are you tearing up?fghaa
7:28 pm
untry? >> uh-huh. >> shabana's commitment to her homeland runs deep. when she got a scholarship to attend middlebury college in vermont, she started working not on building a great life for herself in the u.s., but what she could do for afghanistan. her answer, start a school -- and by the time she graduated in 2011, an early version of sola was already up and running in kabul. >> i heard that it's different. it's a leadership program. >> fatima was an early sola student. >> you were encouraged to speak up? >> yes. >> you liked that? >> yeah, yeah. [ laughter ] >> i was, like, wow. i thought, like, it's such an awesome school. >> fatima's two younger sisters, aydin and sajia, took notice. sajia got in next. >> and i was, like, well, next year it's my turn.
7:29 pm
>> aydin remembers trying to impress shabana, the school's founder, in her interview. >> i was, like, reading a lot of books, and i was writing their summaries down. and i was, like, you know what? i should take this and show her, like, i'm a smart kid, you should accept me here. [ laughter ] >> it worked. aydin started as a 6th grader in 2016, the year sola expanded to become a full-fledged 6-12th grade girls boarding school, the only one in afghanistan funded as a u.s. nonprofit through grants and donations. there were daily assemblies, and the school's own special pledge of allegiance. >> we are all afghans, we love afghanistan, we will try our best and work hard to improve this beautiful country. >> shabana's goal was both to educate her students and serve the nation by training a generation of leaders from afghanistan's various regions and religious sects. >> my roommate was shia, and i was sunni.
7:30 pm
and it was my first time to talk to a shia girl. and it was so interesting to hear from her. >> do you deliberately want the children of conservative families? >> we certainly create an environment in which even the most conservative families in afghanistan would feel comfortable sending their daughters. >> do they? >> they do. >> do you teach the quran? >> we do. for these young women to be effective leaders of afghanistan, they have to be great muslims, great afghans, and highly educated. >> at the start of 2021, sola was thriving. shabana had secured land in kabul, and construction was underway on a new campus. there were a record number of applications, with students enrolled from all over the country. and sola graduates were doing just what shabana had envisioned. fatima had finished college and was working at the afghan
7:31 pm
ministry of finance. >> i was a professional woman. i was contributing. i also had all of my friends who were educated women and men as well. >> so there was a little community. >> yes. >> but the trump administration had been negotiating with a newly emboldened taliban, promising a withdrawal of u.s. troops. and then in april of 2021, president biden announced an unconditional exit. >> i've concluded that it's time to end america's longest war. it's time for american troops to come home. >> i knew then that it was a matter of time before it was going to be irresponsible of me to run an all-girls boarding school in kabul. >> she came up with the idea of taking the whole sola community -- students and staff -- abroad for a semester while the american withdrawal pplayed out. so she started searching for a country, ideally one nearby,
7:32 pm
that would accept them. but the warmest response she g by far was from rwanda, and she grabbed it. >> you were going to go to a place called rwanda -- >> rwanda -- >> did you know anything? >> we all went and searched, and then we found out that it was in africa, and i was, like, wow, oh my god, i'm so excited. >> some of sola's alums, including sajia and fatima, were asked to come as well. >> so was the idea at that moment that you were escaping and that you weren't going to come back for a while? >> no. the idea was that the security is getting worse. we would leave for -- for a, you know, semester. and then if the security gets better, we would come back. if not, we would stay there for a year or more. >> what was the atmosphere in kabul at that point? >> the provinces were, you know, falling one after another, but then we were not hoping for kabul to fall this soon. >> the u.s. government wasn't
7:33 pm
expecting kabul to fall soon either. as american soldiers prepared for an announced end-of-august departure, sola brought in passport officials on august 14th to process the girls' paperwork for flights a few days later. they worked into the night, but unbeknownst to all of them, it was too late. the taliban were closing in and would enter kabul in just a few hours. >> it was 5:00 a.m. in the morning when i got a knock on my door. >> one of the teachers came and said that, you guys have to leave sola in five minutes. and i said that, why? and she said, if the taliban come, they will know that there is a school, and they will kill all of us. >> all of the girls was shouting, and all -- all of us crying, "what should we do?" taliban came to the kabul and took all of kabul. >> in the chaos of the taliban takeover and government collapse, sola quickly sent
7:34 pm
students home with teachers and staff. shabana scrambled to transform what was to be an orderly departure into a sudden, life-threatening escape. but first she had to keep a promise, one she'd made years earlier to a student's father. >> he said, "promise me, when the taliban come to kabul, that you will burn my daughter's records. if they find out that she's a student here, they will kill me and my family." >> so shabana did something heartbreaking. set fire in the school's furnace and courtyard, to the hard-earned records of all of sola's students. >> it was incredibly painful. it felt like making them disappear. >> the girls of sola, their
7:35 pm
escape from kabul, and how they're doing today, when we come back. you don't have to wait until retirement to start enjoying your second act. with protected lifetime income from pacific life... ...imagine your future with confidence. for more than 150 years... ...we've kept our promise to financially protect and provide. so, you can look forward to leading a whole different type of team. talk to a financial professional about life insurance and retirement solutions with pacific life. y'all wayfair's got just what you need for your home. about life insurance and retirement solutions with do they have stylish beds at great prices? whoo, this bed is dreamy. you're kelly clarkson? yes. and you're in our bed? yes. what about five star dining sets? sorry i didn't have a reservation. you're kelly clarkson. i love your work. thank you. find just what you need at wayfair! even a personal sauna. oh! can we do the wayfair song? yes you can. wayfair!
7:36 pm
♪ wayfair, you've got just what i need ♪ wow. it'd be better if you did it. for adults with generalized myasthenia gravis who are positive for acetylcholine receptor antibodies, it may feel like the world is moving without you. but the picture is changing, with vyvgart. in a clinical trial, participants achieved improved daily abilities with vyvgart added to their current treatment. and vyvgart helped clinical trial participants achieve reduced muscle weakness. vyvgart may increase the risk of infection. in a clinical study, the most common infections were urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or if you have symptoms of an infection. vyvgart can cause allergic reactions. the most common side effects include respiratory tract infection, headache, and urinary tract infection. picture your life in motion with vyvgart. a treatment designed using a fragment of an antibody.
7:38 pm
we've been cooking up this kitchen design for a while... ...so it's going to be perfect. ok, that pattern works. wow, this whole look works. and at a price that really works. i think our work here is done. at floor and decor, our helpful associates and free in-store design services add to your experience, not your expenses. and with an unmatched selection of high-quality products all at everyday low prices, creating the kitchen to match your taste has never been easier. discover floor and decor today!
7:39 pm
most of us remember the desperate, frantic crowds trying to get out of kabul after the taliban takeover in august 2021. among them were the students, teachers, staff and staff families of sola -- 256 people in all. sola's founder, shabana basij-rasikh, managed to get all of them on u.s.-approved lists to leave the country, but getting them into the airport was another matter altogether. there were a series of taliban checkpoints, so arriving
7:40 pm
together as a girls' school was out of the question. sola divided the students into groups, with many posing as the children of staff members. the call went out for all the groups to head to the airport on the morning of august 17th. the previous day had been chaos. people had been clinging to airplanes, and crowds had descended on the airport. sisters fatima, sajia, and aydin prepared to go there together. >> we had our masks, we made sure our scarves are put tightly, and we were wearing very long dresses. >> when we left, my mom was telling us that, make sure that you don't do eye contact with -- with talibs. so we were just looking really scared. and then i was just, like -- >> if i look down, they won't look at me. >> yes. >> by the time we got closer to the airport, it was so crowded.
7:41 pm
>> the weather is hot, and i have this black scarf and black mask. and it's suffocating. >> people was pushing each other and shouting. and all of the babies crying. >> i saw taliban that they were -- they were shooting the guns. and also the -- >> they were shooting guns? >> like, the bullets -- >> -- into the sky. >> someone took my scarf. it was in my head, and then someone and the talib saw me, and i shouted, and i said that, they will kill me now. >> as a teacher quickly handed najia a scarf, fatima and her sisters were being jostled by the crowd. >> everybody was pushing, and in a moment i noticed that my sisters aren't there. >> at one point, she was gone. >> so now it's just the two of you? >> i remember sitting there and then crying. and i was, like, aydin, i don't want to go. can we just stop here? you know, let's just go back. >> honestly, i understand. i -- i probably would have done just what you did. >> it was a tragedy, you know,
7:42 pm
with women having, like, their very young kids. i was, like, i just can't take this anymore. >> i really didn't know what to do because she was not listening to me, and then one of the sola teachers came and told her that, you gotta stand up. go or stay here forever. and then i took her hand, and then we went. >> the three sisters were among more than a hundred sola students and staff, including shabana, who made it into the u.s. military-controlled airport to safety that day, and were processed to leave on waiting jets. shabana was told her name was on a taliban hit list, so she should get out right away with them. but all the other students and teachers were still stuck in the crowds outside. shabana refused to go. >> i knew if i -- if i left, it was game over. those who were stuck at different checkpoints had no way of getting through. >> people were pushing us.>> on.
7:43 pm
>> taliban was saying, sit! and there was no place to sit. >> zahra's group and others had to turn back, while shabana spent a first sleepless night inside the airport. after two more days of waiting in these throngs, one last group of 52 was still stuck. shabana asked a u.s. marine captain to accompany her out of the safety of the airport and back to the taliban checkpoint. captain nicholas grey grabbed two members of his team and said, "let's do this." >> you were in the airport and went out. >> and then went back. this is what you do. you have 10-year-old girls, 11-year-old girls, 15-year-old girls stuck on the other side. you do anything you can to get them to safety. >> and she shouted, "suraya, suraya, come this way." and i pushed, i pushed, i pushed and i get her hand and -- >> and she pulled you? >> yeah. >> oh, my goodness. >> these pictures were taken as
7:44 pm
the very last group of students -- and shabana, after three days and two nights in that airport -- boarded the military transport plane that would at last fly them away. she had managed to get everyone out -- 256 people. >> you have to say to yourself, i did it, it's over, i got everybody out. >> it was finally having a moment to think about -- oh, my god, this is it. >> oh, my god, this is it. so now you're looking to the future. >> we're leaving, you know? and -- i was taking with me from afghanistan some of the best educated girls, women leaders in the making. i felt so heartbroken for our people, for afghanistan.ery eyom ianng.
7:45 pm
of this airport, they are going to be seen as unwanted refugees wherever they end up. >> hello. >> good morning. >> but her students are having a completely different experience. in rwanda, they have been welcomed. >> good morning! how are you today? >> we found them dressed in new school uniforms, since each of them had fled with just a backpack. >> i love what you're wearing. >> thank you. >> they're hand-sewn with rwandan patterns to honor their adopted home. >> do you like it here? >> yes! >> you wouldn't know they've been away from their families for more than a year. >> sola's temporary campus here feels like a haven. it's a former hotel complex. its restaurant now a dining hall with classrooms converted from hotel suites.
7:46 pm
>> division! >> they're getting on with the business of learning, mastering math terms. >> numerator. >> in english. >> denominator. >> with many of their afghan teachers now resettled as refugees in other countries, sola has brought in new teachers from abroad. >> that was great. good job. >> this is a school for leadership. >> yeah. >> you think that you'll become leaders? >> yeah. >> yes, of course. >> i want to be a surgeon. >> i want to help poor people in afghanistan. >> i want to be a politician woman. >> a politician? >> yeah. >> suraya wants to be an astronaut. >> spacewoman. >> and, finally, from zahra... >> i want to be a spy. >> a spy? >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> that came out of nowhere. >> how are the girls doing? >> our students, our girls have been consistently and remarkably focused. it is beyond inspiring to see eg
7:47 pm
fa be able to reunite with their but though they're more t 3,000 miles away, it is the 21st century. one of the most striking scenes we saw here was the daily hour, after classes end, when girls can call their families. watching them scattered around the room is to feel the tremendous separation. but shabana also sees the closeness. >> yesterday i was watching swimming practice, and one of them said, "i've been wanting to learn how to float for such a long time, and i can finally do it today." and i asked her, i said, "do you share these kinds of moments with your family?" >> she said, "i share every single thing with my family." >> oh. >> and they are so happy for me. they tell me that they are happy because i'm happy.
7:48 pm
>> what's the reception been like in rwanda? >> remarkable doesn't quite capture it. i've had this conversation with so many rwandans saying, "please don't forget, we were also once refugees. here we are back in rwanda. you will go back home, but for the time being, welcome home to rwanda." >> why does that happen? did i throw it? >> no. >> on earth, there is gravity. >> watching these girls learn, we were struck by the realization that they are among the only afghan middle and high school girls, out of a country of 40 million, who are getting a formal education. but knowing how fortunate they are has made hearing the news from afghanistan that much more painful. fatima's female co-workers at the ministry of finance have all been replaced.
7:49 pm
>> my female colleagues received phone calls saying that they should send one of their male family members to work instead of them. >> so wait a minute. they were being told to send male relatives to take their job -- their jobs? >> as long as they can do the job, they should send them. >> last march, the taliban announced that girls' schools would reopen. girls flocked in, only to be told hours later to go home and stay there. >> all over social media were videos of these young girls crying. and then i was so mad on everybody for -- for not doing anything. >> you mean the rest of the world? >> this bunch of men has taken the control of an entire themselves head to toe again. they're banned from public parks.
7:50 pm
and just months ago, banned from universities as well. history repeating itself. and if there's one member of the sola community who understands what afghan girls today are facing, it's maryam, the school's longtime cleaning woman, and now seamstress. she knows the power of an education, because she never got one. >> translator: the taliban were in power at that time. i mean the first time the taliban were in power. i was not allowed to go to school. girls could not study. >> maryam, can you read or write? >> translator: i would really like to, but i can't. if i could've gone to school, i would have been very happy. it was very hard for me. >> but there is something that makes her happy these days, watching her 9th grade daughter zarmina, who is now a student at sola. lkab
7:51 pm
we finally saw maryam smile. >> are you proud of your daughter? >> yes, yes, yes. >> we cannot, under any circumstances, submit to taliban's vision for afghanistan. and what does that mean for us? it means continue to educate more afghan girls. >> but how? well, she's recruiting them, over zoom, from afghan refugee communities and camps in countries around the world to bring them here to rwanda. >> what should the u.s. government be doing, in your view? >> the one thing that the u.s. policymakers cannot -- cannot afford to do is to forget about afghanistan. do not look away. do not look away from afghanistan. i cannot emphasize that enough. >> and what she wants them to see, alongside the ongoing tragedy in that country, is sola's vision, educated girls
7:52 pm
committed to one day being leaders of a different afghanistan. >> "we are all afghans," they say. "we love afghanistan. we will try our best and work hard to improve our beautiful country." >> you say this every day? >> yeah. >> we repeat it every day that it -- it's stuck in our heart. >> do you all think you'll go back? >> yeah, of course. of course we will go. [ laughter ] >> is it possible that you won't go back to afghanistan? is it possible? >> i spend every waking hour preparing for a return. >> it will happen. >> i've borrowed a stone from the airport. i need to return. welcome to cbs sports hq,
7:53 pm
presented by progressive insurance. >> we have two weeks until selection sunday. but it already feels like march. ucla clinched its first pac-12 title since 2013. in ann arbor, forced overtime, michigan stunned wisconsin. and caitlin clark's 34 points, nine assists and nine rebounds helped iowa hand indiana just its second loss of the season. ? please? girls, pets are a big expense. aww. [ audience cheers ] maybe try switching your car insurance to progressive. you could save hundreds. [ audience laughter ] thanks, tv dad. we'll think about it, okay? look what i found. -a puppy! -a puppy! oh, no, no. i wish tv dad was always in charge. [ dog barks, audience laughter ] listen to your tv dad. drivers who switch and save with progressive save nearly $700 on average. who's on it with jardiance? ♪ ♪
7:54 pm
we're the ones getting it done. we're managing type 2 diabetes and heart risk. we're on it with jardiance. join the growing number of people who are on it with the once-daily pill, jardiance. jardiance not only lowers a1c, it goes beyond to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. and jardiance may help you lose some weight. jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, (that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function), and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction, and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. a once-daily pill that goes beyond lowering a1c? we're on it. we're on it. we're on it with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. ♪ ♪ to all the chevy silverado owners out there.
7:55 pm
the adventurers and the doers. to everyone that works hard and plays hard. whether it's your first silverado or your tenth. thank you for making chevy silverado the #1 best-selling retail full-size pickup. for people who are a little intense about hydration. neutrogena® hydro boost lightweight. fragrance-free. 48-hour hydration. for that healthy skin glow. neutrogena®. for people with skin. (vo) if you've had thyroid eye disease for years and your enflamed eyes are so watery, for that healthy skin glow. they need windshield wipers, it's not too late for another treatment option. to learn more visit treatted.com. that's treatt-e-d.com.
7:58 pm
get medicare with more. next sunday on "60 minutes," anderson cooper visits with david byrne, the legendary and legendarily quirky frontman of talking heads. >> the name of this band is talking heads. i wanted to be very matter-of-fact. it's not like are we having fun tonight? >> there's none of that, "how are y'all doin'?" >> how are you all doin'? >> new york! [ laughter ] ♪ i can't seem to face up to the facts ♪ ♪ i'm tense and nervous and i can't relax ♪ >> david byrne still can't relax. at 70, he continues to turn out innovative music, art, and dance. >> i'm jon wertheim. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." when it was time to sign up for a medicare plan... mom didn't know which way to turn. but thanks to the right plan promise from unitedhealthcare she got a medicare plan expert to help guide her to the right plan
7:59 pm
8:00 pm
get help finding your plan previously on the equalizer... i'm not too keen on private citizens opening their own branch of law enforcement. robyn: come on, marcus, imagine what we can accomplish if we were on the same team. it's about mel. she's been training delilah in self-defense. although i expressly forbade it. she used o-goshi on a kid today. damn near broke his arm. she's not ready, mel. i decide what is appropriate for her to learn. not you. one of the most important things to learn with this skill is when or when not to use it, but you'll get there. you're still gonna let me train with her? there's no better teacher. dante: you're still upset with her about the training behind your back. it's more than that. i've always kept my private and professional lives separate. walls are all down now, and you don't like it. i don't know how i feel about it.
214 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
KPIX (CBS) Television Archive Television Archive News Search Service The Chin Grimes TV News ArchiveUploaded by TV Archive on