New book details NY Times' efforts to evacuate Afghan refugees
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Members of The New York Times' group deplaning from a military plane provided by Qatar in Mexico City. Photo: Najim Rahim
A new book from journalists Rebecca Blumenstein and Diana Kapp provides crucial details about how The New York Times evacuated hundreds of Afghan nationals as the country fell to Taliban rule in 2021.
Why it matters: The account serves as a reminder of the risks many people take to support pivotal journalism, not just the journalists themselves.
Zoom in: "The Last Free Women," which debuts publicly next month on the heels of the five-year anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan, explains how The Times' management and reporters were able to help identify and ultimately relocate more than 200 people fleeing the conflict, 124 of whom ended up in the U.S.
- It explains the quick decision-making process by publisher A.G. Sulzberger, newsroom lawyer David McCraw, then-executive editor Dean Baquet, and others to not only evacuate journalists, but anyone who supported them on the ground.
- "When you have a bureau like that, you have drivers who for years had taken our reporters around the country, translators, cooks ... really anyone who took care of the bureau for over 20 years," Blumenstein told Axios in an interview.
- "They had a lot to fear because they knew that they were associated with the New York Times, and that with a Taliban takeover, they could be hunted down."
Between the lines: Blumenstein — who at the time was The Times' deputy managing editor — became a critical part of the paper's efforts to help support those the paper evacuated when they arrived in the U.S.
- Her book follows the lives of four young Afghan women integrating themselves into American society while mourning the lives they left behind.
- She recalls moments when those refugees learned how to swim, applied for college and got their first jobs. She and other Times leaders remained involved in their lives to support their transition.
- "The Afghan refugees didn't ask to come here. They didn't plan to come here. They they they were thrust into a situation, very suddenly, and are and are very grateful to to be here. But it's been an intense situation, and for many of them, there's a a fair amount of guilt too."
Zoom out: The number of countries from which journalists receiving support from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) fled more than doubled in the five years following the fall of Afghanistan, from 19 in 2021 to 40 in 2025, according to RSF data.
- Of those that fled in that time period, 677 were Afghan journalists, 160 were Russian journalists and 101 were Burmese journalists. Hundreds more came from roughly 60 different countries.
The big picture: Few news organizations have the resources to save people who assisted their sources and news-gathering efforts in a pinch.
- But Blumenstein — who is now NBC News' president of editorial — acknowledged that many outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, AP, Reuters, and others, did whatever they could to evacuate people when the country fell.
The bottom line: "This sort of work is not for the faint of heart," she said.
