Behind every Afghan leaving the country in desperation is a story — of despair, heartbreak and regret. Many of those leaving their motherland are posting emotional messages, expressing their helplessness. One such message, by Afghan filmmaker Roya Heydari, has gone viral on social media.

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“I left my whole life, my home in order to continue to have a voice. Once again,I am running from my motherland. Once again, I am going to start from zero,”  Heydari wrote in an emotional post accompanying a photo of her sitting at what looks like an airport. She left the country soon after the Taliban took charge of the country.

Heydari added that she had taken only her cameras and a dead soul with her across an ocean. “With a heavy heart, goodbye motherland. Until we meet again,” According to Al Jazeera, Heydari reached France five days ago.

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The dark shadow of the previous Taliban rule — between 1996 and 2001 — is fresh on the minds of Afghans. The women then had no rights and were not allowed to work. They could not leave home and public floggings were common. Though the Taliban this time is trying hard to project a moderate image, people are sceptical.

All those who feel they could be soft targets are leaving the country in hordes– among them TV anchors, actors, filmmakers, musicians,  writers and all those who worked for the allied forces.

Afghanistan’s first non-Muslim woman MP Anarkali Kaur Honaryar, who was evacuated by India, also spoike fondly of her palce of birth. Honaryar and her family reached India in an Indian Air Force’s C-17 transport aircraft on Sunday morning as the Taliban took full control of the country.

“I didn’t even get the time to take a fistful of my country’s soil… a souvenir from my country. I could just touch the ground at the airport before boarding the flight,” said Honaryar as she broke into tears.

On the other side of the spectrum is  Nadima, whose family had left Afghanistan when she was a baby. As an adult, she returned. Now 38, she refuses to leave again. “I am not going anywhere… under any circumstances. I was born here, I will be buried here,” she was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

“I am going to stay here and wait for my time to speak for what needs to be done in this country. I do not feel right leaving this country for the safety of Canada, which had been my home for 20 years until I moved back to Afghanistan in December 2019. I do not want to be restricted to having just an online presence and doing lives on social media from thousands of miles away,” she added.