Nilab still remembers the day Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021. She was at the bank trying to pay for her sister's passport in preparation for fleeing the country.

Dressed in a red suit from work and with her hair uncovered, every taxi driver refused to take her home. Nilab, 29, says they feared they would be killed by the Taliban for giving her a ride without a male guardian.

At the time, she had a professional job and was studying at the American University of Afghanistan. Her father worked for the U.S. government. The family had to flee. She says getting out was dangerous enough, and returning is not an option.

"There is no way back to Afghanistan," Nilab said by video call from her dorm room in Qatar, where she has studied computer science for the past three years. CBC News has agr

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