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Lahore, Pakistan — Afghan women’s youth soccer team players arrive in Pakistan and seek political asylum in a third country amid concerns about the status of female athletes under Kabul’s new Taliban administration.
About 81 people, including female players from several youth teams, their coaches and their families, have arrived in Pakistan across the Torkham border, said Umar Jia, an executive of the Pakistan Football Federation. He said an additional 34 people would arrive on Thursday.
It was not clear when they actually crossed the border. Authorities gave them a wreath of red flowers when they got off the bus at the federal office in Lahore on Wednesday.
They will stay there under tight security before applying for asylum in a third country, Zia told Reuters.
“They will go to other countries in 30 days, as some international organizations are working towards settling in other countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia,” he said.
The International Football Organization for Peace has helped arrange departures from Afghanistan and arrivals in Pakistan.
Their flight has been part of a wider outflow of Afghan intellectuals and public figures, especially women, since the Taliban hijacked the country a month ago.
When Muslim terrorists last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work and education. Women are banned from sports, which is likely to continue in this government.
A Tulliburn representative told Australian broadcaster SBS on September 8 that he does not think women will be allowed to play cricket because he opposes Islam “unnecessarily”.
“Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play sports that look like they are exposed,” SBS said Ahmadullawashi, Deputy Secretary of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission. I quoted Mr. Ku’s words.
While several former and current female football players fled the country after the Taliban hijacking, the team’s former captain burned sports equipment to players still in Afghanistan and deleted their social media accounts to avoid retaliation. I urged you to do it.
FIFA, the governing body of sports, said last month that it was working to evacuate the remaining people in the country.
By Charlotte Greenfield and Mubasher Bukhari
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