‘Everybody Is Upset’: Female Afghan Journo Breaks Down at Pentagon Briefing
‘THEY TOOK MY FLAG’
Alex Wong/Getty
Monday’s press briefing at the Pentagon took a deeply emotional turn when Afghan journalist Nazira Karimi begged for answers from spokesman John Kirby. “I’m very upset today because Afghan women didn’t expect that overnight all the Taliban came. They took my flag,” Karimi said, pointing at her face mask, which was emblazoned with Afghanistan’s flag. “Afghan people, they don’t know what to do.” Breaking down in tears, Karimi asked about the whereabouts of President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country over the weekend as the Taliban quickly seized the capital city of Kabul. “We don’t have any president, we don’t have anything,” she said. “Afghan people they don't know what to do. Woman has a lot of achievement in Afghanistan, I had a lot of achievement, I left from the Taliban like 20 years ago. Now we go back to the first step again,” Karimi said. Kirby said he couldn’t speak on behalf of Ghani or his current whereabouts, but sympathizes with her plight. “A heartfelt respect to what you’re going through,” he said.