Nonfiction, including the number one New York Times bestseller, 13 hours and frozen in time as a member of the boston globes spotlight team, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and investigative reporting. He is also the recipient of the livingston award for International Reporting and the winship penn new england award for nonfiction. He is a professor of journalism at boston. He joined in conversation tonight by writer activist and educator omara kodali. She is the author of several books, including her acclaimed novel no crowd the daughter of couple river before leaving afghanistan. She started, she taught at gaja stand university in kabul, worked in two government administrations as a lifelong activist and a defender of womens rights. She awarded the malalai medal of guinness highest civilian honor for exceptional bravery. Tonight, speakers are here to discuss the secret gate. A true story of courage and sacrifice during the collapse of afghanistan, this thrilling, emotional of a young mans courage and a and son skin of the teeth escape from a homeland that is no longer their own is called by karen abbott, New York Times bestselling author a triumph of narrative nonfiction writing that Mitchell Zuckoff reveals the chaos of the us departure from afghanistan with pulse pounding urgency and heart rendering and tell you were so pleased to host this event here at Central Public Library at the cambridge public library. Please join me in welcoming and amita cuddy. Thank you, jasmine much. I also would be remiss if i didnt also mention that we were also joined today by sea of ash, who is elmira sun, who plays an essential it was a central character. Central subject of the book as well. So im so happy hes here as well well. Im going to digress little just because that introduction alone when you when you hear about america, you can immediately understand why she was she had a target on her back as soon as the taliban returned to kabul. If write a book called the dancing in the mosque. You know if youre a fundamentalist, you dont even have to crack the spine of that book to say this is an infidel, this is a person who is a threat to our version of the world and so her bravery i just going to start there that her bravery runs through every page of this book and has been such a privilege for me to get to know and to to share with readers in this book. Let me back up for a minute, though, if i may. So when i started as a reporter a very long time ago, there was newsroom shorthand for a story that was so far away. So outside of readers interest that we they could we couldnt possibly cover it at the globe or wherever. And believe it or not, that shorthand was one word thats afghanis. And that was meant to just everything that was so of our in our sphere of interest or influence. Now, i dont go that far. Im not that old. Obviously, if we just back 40 years and you know, interested gliomas life sort of tracks much of the modern history afghanistan of the russian invasion when she was a girl and then of course the return of the taliban prior to 911 and the rise the taliban and their support for al qaida and then 911 and then the American Invasion in the immediate aftermath of afghanistan pardon me of 911 but im not going to tell that whole thats thats somebody elses book but where i would like to start just to sort of place us in space and time is actually in february of 2020 that really kicks off of these events. Thats the doha agreement. Thats the agreement that the Trump Administration enters into for the withdrawal of the last american troops after oh, at that point almost 20 years in. And it was a terrible deal. It was a horrible deal. It first just structurally excluded the elected government, the legitimate Afghan Government that was supposed to be our partner. And it negotiated directly with the taliban and so of course that involved and empowered the taliban to do exactly what they did. The minute that agreement was reached was to start increasing its attacks and its attempts to to take over larger parts of afghanistan it also triggered the release. 5000 taliban troops from prison, who, of course, immediately the fight so they were bolstered in terms of and in terms of a terrible deal. By the time Joe Biden Took Office in january of 2021, the taliban was stronger than it had been since we entered the country or since we actually since we routed them. We the American Military in. Of 2012, zero and one. So the taliban ascendant now. They at that point contested or controlled half of afghanistan in january of 2021. But and we can talk ill be happy to. But. Joe biden inherited a terrible from the Trump Administration. It a terrible hand but he chose to play it and there was as america told me at one point when she experienced some of the that well talk about tonight america had a deadline america did not have a and so much humanitarian suffering resulted from that simple fact. So theres lot of blame to go around. But in the lead up to the events that i really this book covers entirely august 2021. And at that point almost on a daily basis the taliban seem to be getting stronger as we pulled back as we left bases as we the American Military call it we as the United States removed itself from the ground. It was no longer facts on the ground preventing. The taliban from moving closer and closer and one after another. There are 34 provinces in afghanistan. One after another provinces started to fall. And omara would be on the phone to her father in the province in herat, which is about 500 miles outside away from kabul and on the iran border, and would be hearing gunshots and gunfire. And it was clear and people in kabul were denying what was happening. But she could hear for herself on her phone calls to her father. The taliban was challenging afghan army. And so by that point, no one really expected official really expected the taliban to return to kabul or certainly not that quickly, maybe in three months, maybe in six months was the the all the intelligence estimates and they were wrong. And as the calendar turned to of 2021 city after city started fall province after province numerous in kandahar herat one after another. And they kept moving closer and closer to where ceviche omara were, where the city of, 4 Million People, four and a half Million People of kabul, which was the center of the government, which is the center, the military, where supposedly the 300,000 or so afghan army members who had been trained and equipped by american and nato forces were ready to defend that. Maybe it would take years, or certainly to get there, but obviously not what happened into this mix come the way i comes the way i try to tell stories now i could tell you that story and i could tell you the number is 124,000 people trying to, you know, an airlift, tens of thousands of soldiers, all you know, i can give you all the numbers, chapter and verse, but the way i try to tell this story in the way i hope you sort of appreciate it is by getting to know a few individual souls who are caught in the and because hes not here this book really focuses around those two and really ceviche is the third but primarily omara and sam aaronson a, Young American diplomat who volunteers when the chaos is beginning when everythings starts going sideways, when the taliban is rushing into the gates of kabul and rushing to the president ial palace is a junior american diplomat at home in washington on leave. After two years in nigeria, he has no particular knowledge of afghanistan. He has no particular understand of this place or of these of the people of afghanistan. But he has this unusual combination of ambition and altruism and also i would say an allergic an allergy to inaction and inactivity and that combination makes him put his hand up and say his bosses at the state department go, ill help you look like youre trouble over there. And to his shock, his surprise, they say, sure, sam, come on, get on a plane. And he doesnt. He swears his brother to secrecy. He swears wife to secrecy, that hes not going to tell his parents that hes going over there. 31 year old young diplomat, fairly newly married. He does have some unusual background for a diplomat. He is actually he was trained as a department bodyguard before he put on the Brooks Brothers suit, the sort of young diplomat. So he had some high threat training, which i think is probably why they did send him over when he volunteered. But his wife, lianna, made him make three promises that, a, he wouldnt leave the airport. B, he wouldnt anything unnecessarily dangerous. And three, the most of all, he wouldnt be a hero. And its not a spoiler to tell you hes not going to keep those. So sam gets to and sam gets to kabul. And in the midst of that, there are the scenes that you saw on television. Tens of thousands of people who remember when the taliban was in power in afghanistan, rushing to the airport saying, i have to leave, i have to get my family out. Many of them had helped with the American Military presence they were they served as translator, they served as interpret. They some fought in the military in the Afghan Military with the americans. And they feared death or some kind of terrible retaliation and. These are people who remember the taliban. This was in their lifetime. They remember the repression of women and girls they remember men being beaten in the streets, not having their beards long enough. And they knew how angry after 20 years of war these people were when they finally regained a authority in kabul. And so you saw those scenes. You saw men falling from the the horrible scenes, the men falling from the wings of airplanes. You saw handing babies through barbed wire to american soldiers inside the airport hoping to get them out. You saw people being crushed against the walls of the airport one person in that aftermath of august 15th, the day that kabul fell, the afghan army dissolved on contract on contact. And the afghan basically disappeared into a helicopter with the president ghani to his back to stand one person who was not at the or rushing to the the gates of, the airport is with us tonight. And so its my now to talk with omara about that experience the decision she made and the process she went through, which is really in many ways at the heart of this book. Thank you. Thank you so much. This is on this on no, of course not. Here we go. Here we go. There, go. Think. There it is. Hi. Hi. Its always to see you. Thank you so much. I hope i set the scene accurately. Would you start by telling us your reaction to the talibans return . Kabul. Hi, everyone. At first i should say its a big honor. Such a honor for me to be with Mitchell Zuckoff in the same state. Its a you. You have it is a such an honor to be with Mitchell Zuckoff in the same stage. Thank you so much for bringing this story and. I think we need to know a little more about afghanistan and whats happened. Its very for me as afghan to see. For me everything like a gunshot. Sorry. Its very hard and painful for me to see how soon the afghan story is getting forgotten here. One near to 14 Million People in afghanistan is from all that big decision. So its also hard for me to speak about afghanistan at the same time, fighting with my tears so help me to dont cry and speak. Thank you. Of that was of wonderful. I read the book and then me and two of us to have i couldnt not couldnt he didnt want to read the chapter that is belong to us because. This was painful for him and in some chapters metal. I speak about the books about the i spoke about the his take a total that he called him sanji but really loved to read some chapter because he didnt know about his story who is some and during the book we know him very bit. So for me what the reaction when i saw taliban at the first i didnt i want to say i didnt fear them because i lived them in 1996 till 2000. I lived on the rebel camp for and year six yet. So the most painful rule t the taliban do is that they were covered. Woman with the burqa. So they did it with me before. And i see them too scared again. I didnt escape from balkh. I knew how to even under the under how i leave with a book. But the most thing that i could about taliban was when they i conquered afghanistan in 1996. In 1996, they were not wild like now because at that time, those days, they just come and just because we had the civil war, they bring a. End point to the civil war and they started to have their government. So they didnt show their brutally to the people like me or maybe we see it because there wasnt a you know, any needs and media so maybe didnt see it enough. Yes they closed the school. We didnt we as a woman didnt allowed to go to a street without mariam even we we did not allowed to see a man doctor but we didnt see dads they cut the people their half of the body. Maybe there wasnt enough medical at that time. It but after 20 years fight with the Afghan Government and us soldier in afghanistan, they showed all their face of themselves. They came to hospitals. They come to university. They came to the school and they just killed people. Hundreds and hundreds of people, let alone the battlefield. I dont speak about because we know they just our soldiers. I guess could from that they wanted to take the revenge from people because the people of afghanistan and the government had the operation and this collaboration with the us government. So now the government the u. S. Wanted to leave afghanistan and surrounded to people to taliban and they take the revenge and they will take the revenge from and people like me, i knew that and i knew that they dont have any mercy, any person. We had this experience after 2001. We didnt had it before. And you saw you saw what they in these 20 years. So why didnt you try to leave immediately . You know, you just saw the airport. And the people who try to came out of afghanistan didnt see the people who wanted to stay in afghanistan. You are speaking about for 30 Million People. But in airport, finally, you can see every day, two or 3000 or even 4000, 5000 people. What about others . We dont even speak about 1 million. There was many people who built, rebuilt. I came from a tolerant country. We live, lived our home times. I one times my mom make a curtain from for us to make a private with his dress. With her dress. So rebuilt and rebuilt our house why we should live it easily not easy to be a homeless. So i wanted to stay to have my life. I wanted to have life. I think thats such an important that i when ive to people a little bit about this book people have asked me why didnt she just immediately leave. And my is a version of that having come to know america youre not talking about people who lost everything in an earthquake and they have nothing but the clothes on their back. This is a woman embodied everything that we for 20 years the United States said we wanted for afghan women. She was accomplished she had regain custody after. A complicated divorce. Shed regain custody of three of us. She had a beautiful apartment overlooking kabul university. She was celebrated an author. She was. She had established a place in her world and was advocating on behalf of afghan women. And correct me. Stop me if i say anything. Not true. Planning to spend the rest of your life doing . That and building on what you had created out of nothing. Yeah. Its not easy to. Leave all those in one minute and decided to be nobody. What did your mother tell you . About what it is to be a refugee . Exactly. Came to my for the first time, then was near to my son. Age when. I went to iran. My father and mother. My father fought with the russian soldier for seven or six year, six years, seven years. And finally, because the family lost a lot men. My grandfather decided to say, okay, we should keep some this men for the family and my grandfather sent my father me and my siblings to the border region and just waiting for for a while finishing afghanistan. He still has me after ten years a and i remember that they together about the immigration immigrant being an immigrant and ask for my mother whats the meaning of immigrant. I just thought about my grandfather that i loved him and i loved him and lived. Lived, lived him, left him alone. Behind is happened in my life many time and it was not easy and its not right now easy. So my mother told me that immigrate is means to die alone. And i. I grew up with the traditions to have many people in our to have many people when we are in a funeral around outside, to have many people in. We have a new house. So trying. Its not easy to be a stranger, a foreign country, and to die alone. Thats what it means. So as this is all happening and and the chaos happening all around kabul. And you witness it and you see it when you go out into the streets, when go to the park, when you go to the the the neighborhoods that you loved where you and see of ash would had sort of special places to to get coffee or to get drinks and sweets and yet and and you continue to resist as a Network Grows up around you. So as i describe the book theres an Organization Called its a very shadowy organization. It doesnt you cant find it on the web. I promise you. It took me a long time to track them down called the white scarves and they made a list of more than 3000 women who and families who they believed were in special peril. Amaras name was on the first 20 of that list. That was the level of fear they had for her. And around her there formed a network of people starting or were i guess maybe the of the network was her literary marley rousseff who was calling everyone she could including omari trying to convince to go and trying to convince someone to help. She called her publishers. They they were working with special forces. They were working with sort of some back channels into the state department and into the intelligence community. What made you decide to to follow . I mean, you resisted for days and days and you had fights with marley and translator zaman over. The phone. What made you finally decide to go with squash and your brother to abby gate and try get out . Yes. I tried to stay in afghanistan and i enlisted to o