From New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is a daily.

On Sunday, the president of Afghanistan fled the country. The Taliban seized control of the

country's capital, and the American-backed government there collapsed.

In Kabul, chaos gripped the city as tens of thousands of people went into hiding

or tried to escape. Among them is a 33-year-old woman, an outspoken critic of the Taliban,

who asked that we refer to her by the initial R for fear of retaliation.

In the days leading up to the fall of Kabul, R packed her entire life into six suitcases

and started searching for a way out. Since Friday night, she's been sharing her experience

and fears with my colleague, Lindsey Garrison, as the Taliban closed in.

It's Monday, August 16.

Hey, Ar, I know you are incredibly busy, but I was thinking that maybe you could record

some voice memos and send them to me over the next few days. Anything that you're seeing,

anything that you're thinking, if your situation changes, if you're able to get out of the country,

you can just record anything like that and send it to me.

And I hope you're doing okay, as okay as anyone can be in this kind of circumstance.

Today, we just a couple of hours ago, we learned that logar collapsed,

which is 70 km away from Kabul, which is so scary because now they are just very, very close to

Kabul. And still, there is no way for my family and I to live, but with help of some friends,

we managed to find a safer place for tonight. So I'm moving with my whole family there

and we'll say there tonight and we'll see what will happen because some people say that

there might be fighting tonight. They might start attacking Kabul tonight or tomorrow.

So I have been just moving houses. I'm just like on the way, taking my suitcases, packing

...