Ever since USA President Joe Biden withdrew American soldiers from Afghanistan, all hell has broken loose as the Taliban, a terroristic, militant group has regained and taken over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Women in Afghanistan who over the last 20 years have been experiencing freedom, will again be treated like they are not human, even major sport athletes like the Afghani women’s football national team.
View this post on Instagram
Former Afghani footballer and now human rights activist Khalida Popal has recently come out to the world. She admitted that she has received a number of emotional phone calls from other female football players asking for advice. Her advice to them was to try and leave, she also told AP that her other advice was “I have been encouraging to take down social media channels, take down photos, escape and hide themselves,”.
Khalida is currently living in Denmark after she successfully sought asylum in the Nordic country. Khalida was fundamental in the progression of women’s football in Afghanistan. It was because of her that plans to form an official national team started and those plans were finished in 2007 when the national team was officially formed. She didn’t play for long, as after only 4 years of playing she became director of the Afghanistan Football Association. During this job, she received numerous death threats as she admitted to hating the Taliban on national TV “I was calling Taliban our enemy”. This led her to go to Denmark, but even there she still defends Afghani women and their rights.
She also told AP what she knows about these footballers “They are hiding away. Most of them left their houses to go to relatives and hide because their neighbours know they are (football) players. They are sitting, they are afraid. The Taliban is all over. They are going around creating fear.” Let’s hope that all these problems in Afghanistan can be resolved quickly and that all women regain their natural rights.
#MaltaDaily
