Afghanistan one year later: Journalist Fatema Hosseini escaped Taliban | USA TODAY

Today, she's a college student and an emerging U.S. journalist. She and her family are safely out of reach of the Taliban. But she is not at rest.

RELATED: One year after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan https://bit.ly/3A5Xm2J

A year ago today, journalist Fatema Hosseini was crouched near a Taliban checkpoint at the Kabul airport, covered head to toe in a burqa, sweaty, dizzy and scared.

The Taliban had taken over Afghanistan's capital city four days earlier and masses of Afghans swarmed the airport, desperate for flights out. The Taliban guarding the gates said they would shoot anyone who stood. So Hosseini was duckwalking, trying to stay low but trying to push forward.

A tear gas canister landed in front of her. Tears filled her eyes; her head felt heavy. She was trapped in the middle of a large family. When people started running and pushing from the gas, she stood, too, and a man reached around and grabbed her between her legs. She froze. Bullets zipped over her head. A woman smacked her on the back and said: “Sit down! They’re going to shoot you!” Instead she stood taller and shouted, “I want to get out!”

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