CNN’s Clarissa Ward Dons Hijab to Interview Taliban in Shocking Report From Streets of Kabul: ‘It’s Utterly Bizarre’

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward delivered an on-the-ground report from Kabul to show what the capital of Afghanistan looks like now that the Taliban have seized control over the country.

Ward led her report for CNN’s New Day by emphasizing how much has changed for the city in just 24 hours. “Certainly the dress code for me has changed,” she said, pointing out the fact that she was wearing a hijab.

Ward’s report covered several areas of the city, but one of her first shots was with a group of Taliban fighters gathered outside the evacuated U.S. Embassy. Ward said that the Taliban appears to be trying to portray itself as a non-threatening force trying to establish order, though she noted the major disparity between that and the chaos while hordes of citizens are trying to flee the country.

“People come up to them to pose for photographs,” Ward explained. “They’re just chanting ‘Death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time. It’s utterly bizarre.”

After speaking to a number of citizens outside of the Taliban-occupied presidential palace, Ward reminded New Day that loads of people around the city are sheltering in place and refusing to speak out of fear for the Taliban’s new regime. She pointed out that this is especially true for Afghan women who think they’ll be targeted for working as journalists or holding other kinds of high-profile jobs.

The story today is about the people who aren’t out on the streets, who don’t feel safe, who are petrified, who are wondering what the future will bring, who are hiding out. There are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of them across this city. We can’t see them and they’re not speaking because they’re so concerned, their voices are largely silent. but still when you think of those images at the airport, you have to keep those in your mind. That is the other side of the coin here, the dark reality of the absolute, bitter fear that is consuming so many Afghans in this new, bizarre world.

Ward eventually provided her own details about the mayhem engulfing Hamid Karzai International Airport, which has been besieged by citizens hoping to flee.

“I think those images that you’re seeing — they’re seared into all of our minds — speak to this desperation,” Ward said. “How desperate, how petrified does an individual have to be to risk everything and just try to physically crush yourself onto the outside of an airplane? Those images of people holding on to a U.S. Air Force carrier. I think that’s something many Americans — and people around the world — will not be able to get out of their minds for quite some time.”

Ward further explained that it’s possible the Taliban will go inside the U.S. Embassy in the coming days, especially since “there’s no real way at this stage to stop it.” As for the people at the airport, Ward said that after speaking to Taliban fighters on the street, they might not actually try to interfere with evacuations “because they want all foreigners out of this country.”

The report concluded with Brianna Keilar asking Ward if she feels safe there as a foreign journalist. Ward spoke again of the “uncomfortable moment” she had while trying to report from the presidential palace, but she said she is taking precautions, and her broader takeaway from her was that there were “a lot less women on the streets today.”

Watch above, via CNN.