Afghan women’s football team rises again after escaping the Taliban and years in exile

With determination, courageousness and tons of support, exile players who signifier the Afghan women’s shot squad are getting different accidental to beforehand their planetary careers, 1 that they accidental was denied to them erstwhile the Taliban returned to powerfulness successful 2021.

Among them is Fatima Yousufi, who fled her state and arrived successful Australia with a backpack and a burning ambition to play planetary football.

Yousufi and others similar Mona Amini had been capable to survey and to play shot until the Taliban took implicit and unopen down each women’s sports. The nationalist squad players near Afghanistan, fearing persecution.

After a frantic evacuation, 13 of the players settled successful Australia, wherever for 5 years they lived, played and trained successful the anticipation of erstwhile again being allowed to correspond their country.

This week, 23 members of the Afghan Women United programme are successful a grooming campy successful Auckland, New Zealand, and volition play games against a squad from the Cook Islands.

The nationalist shot federation doesn’t recognise the women’s team. But successful April, football’s satellite governing assemblage granted the Afghan women’s squad eligibility for planetary competition.

“It was a peculiar time that we heard that Afghanistan tin correspond again our emblem successful planetary tournaments," Amini, a midfielder, told The Associated Press successful a Zoom telephone connected Tuesday (June 2, 2026). “This is the effect of hard enactment that we did successful the past 4 oregon 5 years,” she added.

Seven months ago, the Afghan women played successful the alleged “Unite” tournament, and had a triumph implicit Libya. “It was a precise peculiar infinitesimal due to the fact that we played successful an planetary affable tournament, and aft 3 years we heard our anthem,” Amini said. “That was astonishing for me,” she added.

FIFA’s consequent designation was different important milestone connected a agelong and perilous journey. Yousufi, a Melbourne-based goalkeeper, remembers her absorption vividly.

“We’re going to person the nationalist team! That’s the top happening ever that could person happened to the team. It was ace important to us, particularly reasoning of the clip erstwhile we arrived successful Australia and we had mislaid everything: family, our puerility memories and that nationalist team,” she said.

Yousufi said she near location with 1 backpack, “to beryllium harmless and to proceed to beryllium alive”. She said, “When we came present the astir important portion of our beingness was to beryllium a shot subordinate and to beryllium a shot team.” She added, "When we we saw we could not beryllium [officially] a nationalist squad and we could not correspond our country... it was similar I mislaid the game.”

While many ended up successful Australia, determination are Afghan players dispersed crossed Europe and immoderate successful the United States. Coach Pauline Hamill holds endowment recognition camps and helps propulsion the squad unneurotic for games.

Memories of their darkest days stay a beardown portion of the team’s information to succeed, and to correspond women and girls inactive successful their homeland. The Afghan women’s squad played its past authoritative competitory lucifer successful 2018.

“We couldn’t play freely successful Afghanistan. Going retired from location was pugnacious due to the fact that determination was the hazard of the Taliban seeing america and uncovering that we were playing football. It was a precise pugnacious clip and I’m beauteous definite each 1 of the girls, each azygous 1 of us, fought hard to make this squad and we are precise blessed close present to enactment with each other.” Amini said.

Yousufi was a pupil and a shot player, and she said it was hard adjacent earlier the Taliban returned to powerfulness “for a miss to play shot successful Afghanistan with specified difficulties arsenic household barriers and difficulties of the nine to judge a pistillate successful sport”.

“We were reasoning of immoderate different outcomes similar the information we were facing, mundane dangers successful Afghanistan similar weaponry explosions. Considering each those things — and it was the aforesaid for the different girls — we took each those risks to beryllium portion of the nationalist squad and to beryllium a shot player,” Yousufi said.

Then beingness became adjacent much difficult. Amini said, “The lone happening humans privation is freedom, and the Taliban took our freedom. It is truly hard that you cannot educate, you cannot play sport, you cannot spell extracurricular oregon you cannot bash what you love...[or] travel your dreams.”

Amini said the exile players present were determined to correspond each women and girls successful Afghanistan. “We are present and we are going to beryllium trying our champion to bash thing for them, to beryllium the dependable of them truthful that we could person a caller procreation for the aboriginal for the Afghanistan women’s nationalist team,” she said.

Yousufi said she was among a radical of players “adopted by the Australian government” and “we’re present surviving our beingness and continuing our travel with football, with our acquisition and besides being a dependable for each those girls who are successful Afghanistan.”

“Our squad mightiness beryllium the 1 to alteration the mode the radical deliberation and besides the mode that things are happening towards the girls and women successful Afghanistan. We're each trying our champion amusement that women and girls tin beryllium portion of the nine and tin beryllium idiosyncratic who is successful acquisition oregon successful sport, that women besides person the close to bash that,” she said.