Sitting in my eighth-grade classroom, I stealthily check my email, hoping for news updates from The New York Times or CNN about the heightened COVID-19 crisis in India, my country of origin.

As U.S. and coalition forces withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban militia gains more territory, women and girls who resisted gender-based violence and fled to protective shelters, or even jails, risk being sent back to their families where they face further abuse including death.

When the COVID-19 pandemic eventually recedes, its global costs will become clearer. Paradoxically, that accounting begins with hardships that cannot be calculated: the suffering of so many families, communities, nations.