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| From the World Cup sidelines, Afghanistan’s women’s team is fighting for the right to play |
| 2023-07-31 |
| [CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... ] Half-time and thousands of tiny cellphone lights are swaying in time to Coldplay’s "A Sky Full of Stars" on a mild winter night at Brisbane Stadium for Australia’s World Cup match against Nigeria. Sitting across two rows, not far from the pitch, are players from the exiled Afghan women’s national team, who know what it’s like to represent their country and dream of doing so again — if only they were recognized as a national team by the sport’s governing bodies. Khalida Popal, the team’s founder, flew in from Denmark to meet the players, who now live in Australia after fleeing the threat of death by the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... on an Australian military plane as United States troops pulled out in August 2021. "They keep telling me, ’We feel like we are dreaming ... it’s very difficult to believe that we’re actually here,’" said an excited Popal, wearing a bright yellow Australia jersey. Two years ago, she begged the international community for help to get the team out of Afghanistan, imploring the players to burn their kits, so Taliban fighters wouldn’t target them for daring to play competitive sport, which is now banned for women in the country. Now, she’s urging FIFA, the sport’s highest authority, to allow the girls and women to run onto the pitch again to represent Afghanistan. "We have not only the senior women’s national team, we have the youth teams around Europe, and even some of them in the US and Canada," she said. "Can these Afghan players from diaspora represent Afghanistan at international games? It’s not that difficult. It’s not like going on a moon." |
| Posted by:trailing wife |