When the former Afghan Women’s National Football Team, now known as Afghan Women United, took the field this week in Morocco for their first games in four years, they didn’t just play a match; they returned from exile, from dispossession, and from a system that sought to erase them.
Their return to compete after the Taliban banned all sports for women and girls is a true victory for human rights.
Even before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Afghan women athletes faced death threats for representing their country. But once back in power, the Taliban systematically shut all women and girls out of sports. They shuttered training centers and banned competitions. Women athletes had to destroy evidence of their athletic lives, burying uniforms and trophies. For many, sports had been their pathway to leadership, education, employment, dignity, and joy.
The players had to flee the country and make new lives for themselves abroad as refugees. They rebuilt their team, while shouldering the dreams of their former teammates in Afghanistan suffering under the Taliban’s repression.
The Sport & Rights Alliance and Human Rights Watch reported how FIFA’s nonrecognition of the Afghan women’s team effectively exported the Taliban’s repressive policies abroad and denied Afghan women athletes their right to compete, even outside Afghanistan.
But after four years of seeking official recognition, the players’ determination has forced FIFA to allow the team to compete.
“Playing for my country is one of the ways I can stand up for the girls back in Afghanistan,” said Fatima Foladi, who played on Afghanistan’s Under-15 and Under-19 national teams. “My dream is to be reunited with my teammates from all over the world, to play with them again and bring back the football dreams we had when we lived back home.”
FIFA has not yet formally recognized the Afghan players as the women’s national team, and they should do so. FIFA and other sport federations including the International Cricket Council need to stand with Afghan women athletes, rather than those who seek to exclude them from sports.
To see the team rebuilt and competing again gives hope for future generations of Afghan women and girls that they too can reclaim their rights, not only in sports but in all aspects of their lives.
