rina amiri w born in afghanistan and left when she was very young in the 1970s. focused on conflict resolution in afghanistan and other parts of the world for the united nations and the u.s. government. during the obama administration she was a senior advisor at the state department. she's now senior fellow at new york university's center for global affairs. and nura sedique is a public policy fellow at princeton university's school of public and international affairs, and a member of the afghan-american coalition. welcome to you both. thank you very much very much for being here. rina amiri, to you first, my colleague jane ferguson in kabul spoke with this young woman earlier in the program who was in tears, despairing over her future in a taliban-led afghanistan. i know you have been speaking with women all over the country recently. can you give us a sense, what are you hearing from those people? >> what i'm hearing is they're rights disappeared overnight. there's enormous devastation and jjust disbelief that this has happened to them after the international c

earlier i spoke to rina amiri, a former special advisor to the us state dept on afghanistan.ifferent going forward. i desperately hope so but there are signs that others see that make them more hopeful that things will be better this time. some argue that they are more restrained but the community of people that i have been in contact with, the human rights defenders, some of the minority groups, the women, have told me things that make me very concerned. people coming to their houses, interrogating them, ransacking their offices and that makes me really fear that what we have is the taliban of the 1990s. the taliban argue that it is because it's a situation of instability and that things will become much better for the population and i say, i wish that they could make that case for the afghan public because right now, they are running terrified, they are risking their lives. you don't show up at the airport with your family unless you feel like you have everything to lose, and right now, afghans from every part of life feel like they have everything to lose. you obviously ha

we can speak now to rina amiri, senior fellow at the center for international cooperation at new yorky and a former special advisor to the us state dept on afghanistan. she has close personal ties with the country, so thank you very much for joining us. what are your thoughts as the evacuation operation draws down? ., ~' ,, as the evacuation operation draws down? ., ~ ,, , . as the evacuation operation draws down? ., ~ , . ., ., down? thank you very much for having me. i have down? thank you very much for having me- i have been _ down? thank you very much for having me. i have been spending _ down? thank you very much for having me. i have been spending the - down? thank you very much for having me. i have been spending the last - me. i have been spending the last several hours just talking to people who are desperately trying to leave and their anxiety and frustration... the ambassador did tweet out yesterday that an agreement had been reached with the taliban and that people would still be able to leave. people are texting me and asking me if that's true and my responses i very much

let's begin with my first two guests, sami mahdi just got out of kabul, and rina amiri has helped her country from abroad. she was assigned to winston holbrook when he was representative in afghanistan and pakistan. good morning to both of you. it's good to have you here. sami, i wonder if i could start with you. is it as simple as this, journalists like you, as well as four afghans that worked for the american military and the american government, that it is a question of life and death to leave the country? to live, you must go. is that true? >> well, i think it's not just for me and other journalists, civil society activists or the people who work with the u.s. military, it's a question for over 13 million afghans around the country. the panic that you see around the kabul airport shows the fact that people do not see any future and the taliban regime in afghanistan is just a reminder for people. that's why people have panicked and tried to get out of the country as soon as possible in whatever way possible. that says a lot about the taliban and the picture they have been portrayin