it takes a lot of time to get to the plane. it was a really tough time. i received a lot of messages from different friends and people from town that the taliban came to kabul, and most of my friends, they left their houses and they sent a text message to me that, "where are you?" i was in the airport. it was a really, really difficult time for me. now, kamila, you refer to your friend gayle, who helped make arrangements to get you out, and of course, gayle wrote the book the dressmaker of khair khana, which was about your extraordinary life — as a young woman, you set up as a dressmaker and you then found a way to help other women in kabul living under the taliban in the 19905 to make a living out of sewing and dressmaking. yours is an extraordinary story — you are, let's face it, a very famous afghan woman who has worked in government, you've worked in business. do you think you wouldn't have got out, had you not had these contacts outside the country?