They are students at the American University of Afghanistan — though by now they have destroyed documents that identify them as such for fear of discovery by the Taliban. Among all those people that U.S. officials label “vulnerable Afghans,” these AUAF women are some of the most endangered, according to sources familiar with their current situation.

The Taliban has been violently mistreating women at checkpoints and, sometimes, circulating after dark in captured U.S. night-vision goggles, marking houses of suspected opponents with spray paint. Also, the Taliban on Tuesday repeated its demand that the United States stop encouraging Afghans to exit. Thus, the sources declined to provide more detail on who, and where, the students are.

What is clear, though, is that any U.S. rescue operation that leaves behind these students — and, indeed, their male colleagues — will cap what is already an American defeat in Afghanistan with an especially poignant disgrace.