Editor's Note: Three weeks ago, VOA brought you the story of Nasria, one of the Americans trapped in Afghanistan after U.S. evacuation efforts ended August 30. She asked that we use only her first name for her safety. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has been in touch with her since the evacuation ended and has this update.
Twenty-five-year-old Californian Nasria came to the Afghan capital in June to visit family and marry her longtime boyfriend.
Pregnant and scared after the Taliban takeover, she fled with her husband to the airport. But they never made it in.
She filmed herself waving her American passport, but day and night, the Taliban kept blocking her.
"I was, got a gun pointed to my head," Nasria said. "Our troops were literally at the gate just waiting for us to continue walking. And they (the Taliban) had blocked us. And there was a time where I went past them, and I started walking as fast as I can, and they started shooting right by my leg and told me to come back or they would shoot me."
When the U.S. military left, Nasria said the Taliban were hunting down Americans.
"There's been days where, you know, I think to myself am I going to make it home? Am I going to end up living here? Am I going to end up dying here? What's going to happen?" she said.
Nasria hid in a basement for nearly three weeks, as VOA News and others in and out of government worked around-the-clock to help.
And then, a breakthrough.
"I got a call from the State Department at 3:00 in the morning, and they told me to go to a Serena hotel in Kabul at 8:00 in the morning," she said.
From there, Qatar officials put her on a flight to Doha.
However, she said, "The State Department told me that I had to stay for, like, a week and a half or two until they can evacuate me from Qatar."
So, the veterans group Operation Recovery, who'd been monitoring her case, booked her a flight to Los Angeles just a few days later.
"I'm just really excited to be back home, and it feels amazing," Nasria said. "It's nice to breathe again, to be honest."
She's seen friends and family since her return, and she says best of all: "The baby is good. Matter of fact, I went for a checkup, and I got my ultrasound. … I got to hear his little heartbeat or her little heartbeat. I don't know the gender yet."
Boy or girl, that little one has had an interesting journey already.
