Five young women look anxiously at a laptop computer. This is the call they have been waiting for for a long time. A mixture of emotions overcomes them when each one discovers that they have been selected to join the female team of refugees from Afghanistan.
Exiled Afghan women have been fighting for the right to represent their country since they fled Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power four years ago.
CNN spent two days in September with some of the athletes who live in the north of England. They are part of dozens of players who fled to countries such as Australia, the United States and Portugal.
“Obviously, it’s an incredible moment for all of us. I can’t wait to share it with my family,” goalkeeper Elaha Safdari tells CNN.
“I’m sure my parents will be proud of me and will probably see me on television”, adds the 21-year-old before bursting into tears. His parents were forced to remain in Afghanistan for health reasons, leaving Safdari and his brother to start a new life as refugees in England.
The team of 23 players – publicly announced by FIFA – is expected to play a series of games in a friendly tournament in Dubai in October, organized by the world football governing body and preceded by a preparation camp. The Afghans will face teams from Chad, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino hailed the creation of the women’s team as a moment. However, the initiative falls short of official recognition as Afghanistan’s national team, something that has always been the players’ main objective.
FIFA regulations require recognition from the Afghan Football Federation (AFF), which has banned women’s sport entirely. Despite FIFA’s own statements that discrimination based on gender “is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion”, the organization continues to recognize the AFF.
Afghan football players take refuge at a training camp in Doncaster, England, along with former coach and mentor Khalida Popal. (CNN)
“I’m very grateful that this is happening after four years — FIFA gave us the opportunity and basically opened the doors and welcomed us,” says defender Narges Mayeli.
“But I would prefer the Afghanistan women’s national team title, and I feel like a lot of my teammates are on the same page as me right now.”
Mayeli says she remains determined, despite not being called up to the team. “We will continue to fight, anyway”, he adds with a smile.
And there is also the fact that FIFA chose the name of the Afghan refugee women’s team. Although athletes are fully aware of their condition, it is a term that often makes them feel like outsiders, especially when they enter the field.
“We want more than that from FIFA”, says player Zainab Mozaffari. “We are tired of being called ‘refugees’.”
When questioned by CNN, FIFA said in a statement that “the organization of the Afghanistan women’s refugee team represents an important and historic step towards giving Afghan players the platform and international recognition to which they aspire.
“Despite the complex and exceptional challenges and circumstances, we believe that we are on the right path and are proud of what has already been achieved, even in this initial phase of implementing this historic strategy”, the statement reads. FIFA also stated that it has worked to improve the situation of Afghan women’s football within the country and to support players in exile since leaving the country in 2021.
“Football saved my life”
Mayeli was 18 when the Taliban took power.
“I was very scared… I had all my shirts and medals”, she recalls. “I asked my father to bury them.”
Sitting across from his daughter in their living room in Doncaster, England, Abdul Raziq confesses that hiding his daughter’s youth team equipment was painful, given the effort she put into football in Herat. Reliving this memory moves both of them.
Narges Mayeli in her room wearing an Afghanistan jersey given to her by former coach Khalida Popal. (Madalena Araújo/CNN)
After months of chaos and an international rescue operation, the Mayeli family, along with several other players and some of their family members, managed to reach Doncaster. Many did not speak English and ended up living in a hotel for two years while they waited for their asylum applications to be approved.
“Football saved my life and, obviously, the lives of my family and so many other girls and people”, says Mayeli, who has just started a degree in sports management.
Football as a platform for human rights
The fact that the Taliban have practically erased women from public life in Afghanistan weighs heavily on the athletes. Defense Najma Arefi, 22, wants to become a human rights lawyer.
“As human beings, we were born free… and suddenly everything collapsed”, he says, lamenting that his country is once again under the control of the radical Islamic regime.
Arefi stresses that women were most affected by last month’s deadly earthquake — an echoed by the UN Special Representative for Women in Afghanistan — just one of many examples of their suffering.
Khalida Popal, former captain of the Afghanistan women’s national team, fled the country in 2011 after exposing corruption and abuse of power within the Afghan football federation (CNN)
Using football as a tool to defend human rights is Khalida Popal’s life mission. The former captain of the Afghan women’s team fled the country in 2011 after reporting corruption and abuses of power within the federation. Remaining in Afghanistan became impossible.
Popal’s activism continues to this day, from exile in Denmark, where she remains a mentor to athletes. She says that living as a refugee allows her to relate to the players on a deeper level.
“We sacrificed so much. For us, football has always been a tool to fight for our human rights, for our sisters, who never truly had a voice”, says Popal, whilst watching the players during a training session in Doncaster. He meets them on the pitch before the warm-up and tells them that the team created under the auspices of FIFA “is just the beginning”, brimming with pride.
“We have been shouting loudly. We have been knocking on all closed doors to get FIFA’s attention, so that they hear our voices, so that they listen to us”, he adds, referring to his mission to recover the name of Afghanistan’s national team.
For now, the team’s 23 players can look ahead and prepare to meet again this month in Dubai. “The Taliban took my dream away from me, and I’m excited — hungry to play,” says goalkeeper Safdari. However, he cannot hide his frustration with the team’s continuous struggle for recognition.
“It’s just football. Let us play. Let us represent our country.”
