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
The Independent (UK): In April 2011, Khalida Popal thought she was going to die. “I was facing regular death threats from the Taliban, and I knew that if I stayed in Afghanistan my life would have been in real danger,” she says softly. “I had a choice — I could either stay in my own country
BBC News: Kicking a ball around the schoolyard has been a right of passage for children all over the world, but for former Afghanistan women’s captain Khalida Popal, playing football nearly cost her her life. “It was really dangerous, I can’t forget that time or that moment, where I felt I may no longer be alive.
Tolo News: Afghanistan’s National Cricket has defeated Ireland by 30 runs in the first One-Day International (ODI) at Greater Noida in India on Wednesday. Click here to read more (external link). The Guardian (UK): Khalida Popal was the face of women’s football in Afghanistan but had to flee because of death threats. Now Popal is living in
Chron: Khalida Popal did not hear the specific words, but as a woman trying to gain equality in Afghanistan she knew exactly how the men felt about her speaking up. “Shoot that girl and the story is finished. Nobody will do anything after that.” Six years ago Popal was the captain of the Afghanistan Women’s National
CNN: She’s faced death threats, violence and depression, but the former captain of Afghanistan’s women’s football team Khalida Popal refuses to be silenced. “There are so many women who can’t get out of Afghanistan and die,” Popal told CNN during a recent visit to London, where she attended the Beyond Sports awards. “I have a voice
Excelle Sports: Khalida Popal is the former captain of the Afghanistan women’s national soccer team, and one of the country’s most influential women when it comes to developing the hopes, dreams and talents into not just a national team, but open access to the sport itself. On Wednesday, she spoke with a news program in the