?They will kill us?: how joint Afghan Australian group whisked female activist to safety as Taliban seized Kabul

As the sun beat down on the throng massed outside Kabul airport, Najia Babakarkhail willed herself into silence, her face hidden by a makeshift disguise.

Taliban fighters, armed with AK-47s, clad in black, were scanning the crowd where Babakarkhail, her daughter, and twin granddaughters stood, three generations of Afghan women all desperate to flee the recently fallen capital.

Babakarkhail knew one small slip would betray them.

She was a high-value target and easily recognisable to the Taliban.

An Afghan politician and activist, outspoken on issues of social justice, her face had been regularly splashed across television and the papers in her province of Paktika, in eastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban had already killed her brother and bodyguard. They had issued warnings directly to Babakarkhail herself.

"So I wore sunglasses and I wore my skirt on my head," she told the Guardian via an interpreter. "I was covering from everyone, and even I was not talking, I was afraid someone would recognise my voice."