Joy in Melbourne: Fatima (2nd from left) is the goalkeeper and captain of the Afghan women’s soccer team.
Foto: Getty Images/Kelly Defina
The Taliban’s invasion of the capital Kabul a year ago also hit the sports world hard. It is true that there are occasional stories about soccer games that also took place under the rule of the holy warriors. However, the scope for this is very limited. A team from Pakistan who wanted to play a few friendlies in Kandahar, Afghanistan, found out in July. In the middle of the third game of this series, Taliban security guards stormed the soccer field, arrested the players and punished some of them by shaving their heads. According to a BBC report, a Taliban spokesman said the players violated the Islamic dress code. This prohibits showing naked body parts. Footballer calves are also subject to the ban if they are not properly covered.
What exactly remains possible in sport is unclear. For example, the Iran Wire website operated by exile Iranians reported on illegal sports facilities for martial artists in Afghanistan. One athlete said that the athletes who have been practicing the sport for a long time are finding ways to continue doing so even under the new conditions. However, getting young women and girls excited about sport is next to impossible.
Zahra Hosseini confirms this to »nd«. In 2014, the 30-year-old archaeologist launched the first joint cycling race for women and men in Bamiyan province. »The race went from the site of the destroyed Buddha statues to downtown Bamiyan. Many residents came to the route because they wanted to see the girls riding bicycles. It was a great success,” says Hosseini.
The girls who, as cycling pioneers, coined the slogan »Right to Ride« (»A right to ride a bike«) are now scattered to the four winds. Hosseini himself landed in Sweden. Four days before the Taliban invaded in August 2021, she received a scholarship in Stockholm. However, she did not leave the country until weeks later. Because it was not possible to get through to the airport, she fled with a group of human rights activists overland to Pakistan and from there managed to leave for Scandinavia. A girl she once taught to ride a bike in Bamiyan is now studying in Japan. Hosseini’s closest friend is in Germany with her brother and father, who are also cycling enthusiasts.
»Two weeks ago, aid organizations managed to bring some girls to Italy with the support of the Italian embassy. But I also know from some who have moved to Kabul from Bamiyan that they are in a very bad situation there. They’re afraid they just want to get out,” says Hosseini. Cycling in the Taliban’s Kabul is out of the question. Even under the previous government it was not easy. Hosseini first had to convince the local mullahs in Bamiyan. “They wanted us girls to train in a secluded place. I told them that we ride our bikes in the middle of the city and don’t want to separate ourselves from men and boys,” she says, beaming. At that time, the mullahs gave in. But now the strict interpretation of Islamic law by the Taliban prevails.
That’s why hundreds of top athletes have already left the country. There are no exact numbers about it. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had organized “more than 300 visas for members of the Afghan Olympic sports community.” When asked by »nd«, the IOC did not answer how many athletes, officials and family members were among them. The world cycling association UCI announced that it had helped evacuate 165 cyclists. That sparked bitter Twitter comments. ‘What evacuation? Which refugees?” video artist and cyclist Morteza Amir asked sarcastically. Only a handful of athletes are said to have belonged to the UCI delegation. The world cycling association did not respond to a request from “nd” about the composition of the group for which the departure was organized.
But there are also real success stories. A group of women spread across Australia, Canada, England and Denmark organized the escape of the entire Afghan women’s soccer team, as well as some members of the youth team. “We managed to get 80 people out of the country. The key to our success was on the one hand the determination of the girls and women, and on the other hand the organization that we quickly built up. Not only did we send lists of people at risk to the government, but we also had visa applications for each one with us. And we were in constant contact, providing information on the location of Taliban checkpoints around the airport and also on which gates it was cheaper to get into the airport,” reports Alison Battisson “nd”.
The Australian is a lawyer and founder of the human rights group Human Rights for All, which itself was very active in the evacuation. Battisson and her colleagues also advised the athletes not to have sports clothes in their luggage. “It would have been life-threatening to have such ‘evidence’ with you, given the Taliban’s laws prohibiting women from playing sports,” she explains.
Afghan women footballers have now fully joined Australian club Melbourne Victory. They take part in regular league operations in the province of Victoria – and are quite successful at it. “They’re tremendous fighters, they can really dominate some rivals,” says Battisson with pride. 8:0, 10:0, 12:0 some teams are dispatched.
The women around Battisson did not get any help from the big sports organizations such as the world football association Fifa or the IOC. “There was nothing, neither practical nor strategic. The only ones who really helped and did a fantastic job were the people from players’ union FifPro,” says Battisson.
It is completely unclear how Afghan sport will continue. The IOC is in contact with both the country’s exiled National Olympic Committee and Taliban sports officials. A support package worth 560,000 US dollars was even negotiated with them, which should benefit almost 2,000 female athletes in the country. “The money was distributed with the help of UNHCR, according to standard procedures of the UNHCR Regional Office. UNHCR also required all recipients to be available for a site visit or a phone call,” the IOC said.
However, exiled athletes had expressed the suspicion that money from the aid fund had ended up directly with the Taliban and not with the athletes. In any case, the IOC is aiming for a mixed Afghan men’s and women’s team for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. It is difficult to imagine how this can succeed when women are not allowed to exercise at all and men have to be covered from chin to sole.
Only teams of refugees are realistic at the moment. The women’s national soccer team could play a pioneering role. The men’s and women’s national basketball teams are currently in Albania and may occasionally play benefit games there. Some cyclists train at the headquarters of the world federation UCI in Aigle, Switzerland. Martial artists, track and field athletes and snowboarders have traveled to Canada on the initiative of former Olympic judo participant Friba Rayazee. However, it is unclear whether they will continue to train there or whether they have to worry about adjusting to a new life first.
Zahra Hosseini, the cycling pioneer from Bamiyan, got back on her bike in July for the first time since her escape. “It was a great feeling,” she says. However, professional integration and dual language learning – Swedish and English at the same time – initially have higher priority.
