‘I am losing my skills’: female boxer who was on Afghan national team

*Mariam and her sister were on the national boxing team and the youth boxing team. They were ordered by the Taliban to stop practising, and are frightened they may be targeted in future. The interview was interrupted by a hail of gunshots near the place they are staying.

Afghanistan: the left behind

The crowds fighting to get into Kabul airport for evacuation dispersed months ago, but while the scramble to leave Taliban-controlled Afghanistan became less visible when the last foreign troops left in August 2021, it got no less desperate.

Since then, reprisal killings have regularly been reported from across the country, including dozens detailed in a recent report from Human Rights Watch.

For those still in Afghanistan, living in hiding or in permanent fear for months now, the dangers seem to be increasing as the options for escape narrow.

The UK government has tightened rules for its ARAP visa programme for former employees.

A second scheme offering a path to safety to a wider section of Afghans at risk was heavily promoted by the government but it only began operating this month, and there are no details of how individuals can apply.

And while the Taliban have largely kept a promise to allow those with tickets and documents to fly out, Afghan passports are difficult to secure , visas are even more challenging, and flights are still prohibitively expensive.

This series features the stories of those who are trapped, in Afghanistan or in limbo as they search for safe haven, fearing for their lives from Taliban attacks or through hunger because they cannot work.

Emma Graham-Harrison

About two weeks after they took Kabul, the Taliban sent two gunmen to our doorstep. They told us: “Forget your dreams. The Islamic emirate is