BBC
The scene at Kabul airport was one of chaos and desperation. Amid gunfire, people were stampeding in total panic. Thousands were trying to escape the Taliban, and Fati was among them.
Fati is a goalkeeper who honed her fluent English by watching TV series and films growing up in another, very different Afghanistan. Her full name and age are withheld to protect the identity of her family.
As the Taliban rapidly retook control of her country in August 2021, Fati quickly decided that she and her international team-mates would have to leave their homeland and loved ones behind.
For years they had played together, a football team that represented an Afghanistan of greater opportunity and freedom for women. Now thoughts turned to the public executions and stifled liberty that had been hallmarks of the Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001.
Fati had considered the Taliban’s return impossible. Her disbelief soon turned into a sense of hopelessness and dread. She had to get out.
“I accepted that Afghanistan was over,” she says.
“I thought there’s no chance for living, no chance for me to go outside again and fight for my rights. No school, no media, no athletes, nothing. We were like dead bodies in our homes.
“For two weeks I never slept. I was 24 hours with my phone, trying to reach out to someone, anybody for help. All day and all night, awake, texting and searching social media.”
Fati and her team-mates did find a way out. They were assisted by an invisible international network of women guiding their steps towards safety.
This is the story of their escape.
It starts 12,700km away in Houston, Texas, where a 37-year-old former United States marine was planning the evacuation.
“It was like a little virtual operation centre running out of WhatsApp,” says Haley Carter. “Never underestimate the power of women with smartphones.”
Carter, 37, was a goalkeeper too. After her time in the military, which involved service in Iraq, she played three seasons with NWSL side Houston Dash before moving into coaching. Between 2016 and 2018 she was Afghanistan’s assistant coach.
The American may have been thousands of miles away but she was sharing intelligence about the rapidly changing situation in Kabul with marines and National Security staff via encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. The operation was dubbed a ‘Digital Dunkirk’.
“In a normal combat environment, that kind of information wouldn’t be shared. But this was an evacuation,” Carter says.
