A warning for listeners, this podcast features harsh language and descriptions of war, terrorism, and violence.

It's important to hear, but it can also be disturbing.

In our last episode, you heard about the Afghans who left during the US withdrawal.

In this episode, we'll tell you about someone who made it here, but doesn't know how long she'll be able to stay.

Manaz is an Afghan woman raised in Iran. Around 2010, she decided to return to Afghanistan because things seemed to be going well in her country.

It was during the surge near the height of US troop numbers in Afghanistan. Here's Manaz.

A lot of good things happening in Afghanistan because US soldiers came to Afghanistan and this security is good.

When she came home, Manaz was excited about her country's future and she wanted to be a part of it.

So in 2011, she decided to join the Afghan military.

When you go to ministry and join to them, you can find yourself in your country and you can feel your country with all your body, with your heart or your mind.

So it was really good for me.

Manaz joined what's called a female tactical platoon. It's made up of Afghan women, soldiers who helped capture or kill Taliban leaders.

The FTP went out on night raids with the Afghan military. Soldiers like Manaz were equipped with rifles and night vision goggles.

Their targets were often at home with their families, women and children. Soldiers like Manaz would be there to speak with them.

The job of female tactical platoon was searching for female and children in missions.

And we go to the high-ranked positions Taliban's house. There was female and children in the house and so FTP was at that mission.

The US and Afghan governments thought the female tactical platoon represented a key part of Afghanistan's future, an elite group of highly trained Afghan women to fight insurgents.

But this work made them big targets for the Taliban, who restrict women's participation in all aspects of public life.

So Manaz had to keep her work a secret. But she loved her job. She flew across the country in military planes and she saved lives, making lifelong friends.

We really love our job. Like it was really dangerous job. Every time that you go to the mission you know that maybe you don't come back, but we know like this kind of danger, but we accept that.

But the work changed in 2020. The Americans were starting to leave and the Taliban ramped up their attacks against the Afghan army.

We have a lot of civil war. In every provinces or other like villages we had a lot of war that was going on in the country, especially five or six months before evacuation.

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