Khalida Popal and Malala Yousafzai via the Guardian(UK): As the Taliban erases women from all public life, the Afghan women’s football team players remain symbols of courage and resistance for their country. Most of the team now live in Australia, where they train for an uncertain future. After losing their homes, livelihoods, and many friends
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi September 15, 2021 A group of top Afghan girls soccer players, their coaches, and family members have fled across the border into neighboring Pakistan as questions linger over the status of female athletes under the newly installed Taliban-led government. “I am so happy to announce that today, more than 79 youth female
AP: Players from Afghanistan women’s national soccer team had an “important victory” on Tuesday when they were among a group of more than 75 people evacuated on a flight from Kabul. “The last few days have been extremely stressful but today we have achieved an important victory,” former team captain Khalida Popal said. Click here
CBS News: Afghan taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi was supposed to be on her way to the Tokyo Paralympics and become her country’s first ever female participant in the Games. Instead, as the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, the 23-year-old tells CBS News she and her family are living a “nightmare.” Click here to read
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 8, 2019 A “culture of abuse” continues to thrive at Afghanistan’s soccer federation because of world soccer governing body FIFA’s “apparent inaction” in a sexual abuse scandal involving female Afghan players, according to the national women’s team coach. In a letter dated August 6, coach Kelly Lindsey and the team’s
Afghanistan Times: A European country refused to issue visa[s] to an investigating team working on the allegations from female footballers over sexual abuse, officials confirmed. Jamshid Rasouli, spokesman of attorney general office said on Saturday that the two investigators need to travel to different European states and [conduct] interview[s] with the former female football players living
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty December 16, 2018 Afghanistan’s attorney general has called on soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, to share evidence it has collected over allegations of sexual and physical abuse against the women’s national team. Jamshid Rasuli, the attorney general’s spokesman, told reporters in Kabul that the December 16 request was part of an
VOA News December 9, 2018 Afghanistan’s attorney general has suspended five officials of the Afghan Football Federation, including the president of the organization, following allegations of sexual abuse against members of the women’s national football team. The suspensions came just days after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered an investigation into the allegations that were first
Tolo News: In reaction to allegations over sexual and physical abuse of some members of Afghanistan National Women’s Football Team, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Saturday said they will run a thorough investigation into the claims. After the allegations made over sexual and physical assault on women players at AFF, Khalida Popal, a former player at
The Guardian (UK): Fifa is examining allegations that members of the Afghanistan national women’s team were sexually and physically abused by men from the country’s football federation, including its president, Keramuudin Karim. Khalida Popal, a former head of the women’s football department at the AFF, who was forced to flee the country in 2016 and seek asylum