Afghan women footballers fight for the right to play

INTRODUCTION 

 

On 25 March 2025, the Sport & Rights Alliance released a report "It's not just a game. It's part of who I am': Afghan Women Footballers' Fight for the Right to Play," 

The links at the end of this article will take you to a video, the report and a petition.

The report details how the Afghan women's team, a symbol of women's empowerment in post-Taliban Afghanistan, was specifically targeted for reprisals when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The report documents that dozens of Afghan women footballers who were evacuated to countries including Australia, Portugal, Albania, the United Kingdom and the United States remain eager and ready to represent Afghanistan in international competition. 

At FURD, we have been so lucky to encounter the development team players who were settled in Doncaster in 2021. FURD's relationship with Girl Power began when we met Khalida Popal at a FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) conference. It is extraordinary to contemplate the trauma that so many young women have been through just because they are footballers. It is also a complete privilege to play football with them. This is an account of some of our time together and why we should support their fight to represent their country. 

OUR FIRST MEETING WITH GIRL POWER 

When you encounter a room with around 40 women from various backgrounds and a range of ages from teens to 60's and the room is filled with laughter and excited chatter you know for sure there is something uniting us all. A glance at our attire - sports gear, shin pads, football boots - lets you know that one of those uniting factors is football. But sometimes there are deeper, less obvious uniting factors which foster a culture of innate understanding and a sense of solidarity between women who have only just met. 

The women in the room that day, Friday 21 June 2024, were the Afghanistan Women's Football Team Development Squad, playing under the name Girl Power UK, and women who play in the Football Unites, Racism Divides (FURD) open age football session. 

Girl Power UK came to the U-Mix Centre in Sheffield, where FURD are based, for a friendly 9 a side game. The purpose of the event, which formed part of the internationally celebrated Refugee Week, was not just about hosting a friendly match and making new contacts. It was also part of the ongoing campaign to demand that FIFA, the world's football governing body, allow the Afghanistan Women's Football Team to compete internationally again. 

Bringing keen grassroots footballers together to play a game is never a hardship and many of us from FURD signed up straight away for a place in the team that day, eager to be part of this historic meeting. We gathered at U-Mix, warmed up, kicked about and started looking around for the arrival of our opponents. In due course, a large group of young women arrived, clad in smart black kit with a striking 'Girl Power' logo in white across the front. 

Leading the troupe was the deeply impressive Khalida Popal. Khalida founded the Afghanistan Women's National Team in 2007. Those few words cannot begin to convey the singular courage, vision and determination of Khalida's achievements. Nor are they able to touch upon the many years of trauma that she, along with countless of her countrywomen, has faced under, and escaping from, authoritarian Afghan regimes which included many years under the brutal Taliban. Khalida now lives in exile in Denmark, having escaped Afghanistan in 2011. From there she set up the Girl Power organisation and helped to orchestrate the evacuation of the Afghanistan Women's Football Team and many other players whose safety was severely under threat due to their involvement in football. 

Khalida's autobiography, My Beautiful Sisters, is a searing, honest and shocking account of all those turbulent events and is must read for anyone wanting to understand in more details the context in which she and the Girl Power team were visiting us. 

OUR FIRST MATCH! 

Full of anticipation for the game we watched as the Girl Power Team warmed up together, looking organised, skilful and - yes, we had to face it - much younger than many of us. This was going to be a tough match. 

Happily we also had the benefit of experienced referee Tania Marsden to officiate the game. Tania is a former striker with over 300 games under her belt for Sheffield United, up to FA Women's Championship level, and with more recent experience at Sheffield FC from 2019-2020. Also a former worker and volunteer with FURD with coaching experience, she took up refereeing in 2023. 

The teams lined up for a pre match handshake before kick off. 

What can we say about the game? It was frenetic, it was committed, it was joyous, it was competitive. With rolling subs, there didn't appear to be a moment's pause in the action. The ball was expertly controlled by the Girl Power team, their honed footwork skills very evident and very hard to suppress before FURD would then gain control and use our familiarity with each other to our advantage as we passed the ball between us to develop a series of attacks. Back and forth this went, with some incredibly competent goalkeeping at either end keeping the game scoreless for much of the play. Eventually, the pressing of FURD paid off with the ball scrambled over the line by Nida Nisa, from an assist by Verity Emmanuel. The remaining minutes were tense as FURD worked hard to maintain the scoreline until the final whistle. For such a tight game, it was a relief for the FURD team to have taken the spoils but we all knew the scoreline could have easily been reversed. 

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER 

Both teams of exhausted players piled in together for post match photos then relocated to the meeting room in UMix where pizzas and chips were waiting for everyone. When everyone had eaten their fill it was time to hear more about Girl Power. 

Having been so energised and vocal, an unusual stillness descended on our combined group as Khalida Popal began to speak. After thanking FURD for hosting the game and congratulating the FURD team for scoring and winning, Khalida explained that Girl Power was a not for profit international grassroots sports entity whose purpose was to use football as a tool to empower women. She explained that the team visiting us today was Girl Power UK; the organisation being based in Denmark and represented in many other countries over different continents. 

The Girl Power UK team were evacuated in 2021 by the UK Government, mainly from Afghanistan, and were the Afghanistan Women's Development Team. Once the Taliban regained control after the withdrawal of military forces from nations including the US and UK, life was in imminent danger for all these young women because of their activities in football. With their evacuation, their lives changed overnight. 

"Playing football is the strongest tool for them to stand as women of Afghanistan and Girl Power provides a voice for their voiceless sisters," explained Khalida."Football is a great way to stand for our own rights. The Girl Power objective is to celebrate football, unity, togetherness and to recognise the bravery and resilience of refugees.” 

It was incredibly poignant to be sitting amongst so many women who had had to deal with unimaginable danger at so young an age, and Khalida's words helped to convey the sense of purpose bourne out of that collective trauma.

Khalida explained that the Senior Women's team was settled in Australia, while the Development team came to the UK. They spent their first 6 months in Doncaster, housed in a hotel as refugees. Although conditions were far from ideal, they at least were together and could continue to play football together. Presently, permission to settle in the UK was granted and the women began to forge their individual paths, playing more rarely as one team. Many play for various local clubs, while studying and continue to use the platform of football to advocate for Afghan women. 

One very significant and devastating consequence of the mass exodus of the women footballers from Afghanistan has been the loss of the right to represent Afghanistan on the International stage. 

"The Taliban Government banned education, social activities and sport for women," explained Khalida. "The Afghanistan Football Association (AFA) no longer operates a women's team and does not recognise the exiled team. So FIFA don't recognise the exiled team either”. 

Khalida is working alongside a number of governments plus other advocates and activists to raise voices to get FIFA to allow the exiled Afghan women players to be recognised as the national team and to be able to represent their country. 

To put this into context, Article 4 of the FIFA Statutes states that "discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, disability, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion." That the AFA is operating blatant gender discrimination and continues to be unpunished by FIFA is nothing short of scandalous. It would be unprecedented for FIFA to officially recognise a team in exile, but as the governing body it quite simply not only has the power to choose to do this but is morally obligated under its own anti discrimination policies and it's own Women's Football Strategy to facilitate that representation by recognising the team in exile as the national team. 

Back to our meeting, it was now time for the floor to be opened between the two teams to get to know each other a bit better. As the questions flowed back and forth, the laughter and sense of solidarity began to bubble over. 

FURD's Verity Emmanuel asked Girl Power about their earliest memories with a football. Narges Mayeli recalled that "there were no girls playing, we were trying to make a change, it was really difficult. Lucky we had family that supported us. We had to cover up when going to football training. We were playing football and training in a back yard❞ 

Girl Power asked FURD if we were playing as a team. FURD's Ayesha Khan explained that we play every Tuesday, whoever turns up. She also went on to explain about the sense of community fostered by FURD. Ayesha informed Girl Power that wearing a headscarf had been banned by FIFA [between 2007-2012] and although the ban was now lifted "in this culture wearing a headscarf is not the norm. People don't understand, they don't see you as a player. We have had to break so many norms, like the Girl Power players have done." Ayesha pointed also to the lack of diversity in the England Women's team. 

Narges asked what were FURD players' motivations to play football and if it was what we imagined it would be like? 

Ayesha replied by explaining that her family were all supportive "but as soon as I wore the headscarf there were barriers, discrimination. It was not the sport I thought it was. Football can feel like a very British male sport, associated with drinking culture. If you are not in their culture you get left out. It is only now because of the Women's Euros victory that it's getting bigger in England" 

FURD's Desara Dukaj said she chooses to play football simply because she really enjoys it and Kizzy Jaycock explained that because FURD exists, our diverse group has somewhere to come. 

This sense of breaking down barriers, of creating an identity and community within the football world was that thread of solidarity recognised by both the Girl Power and FURD groups. It helps gel groups who may not have the exact shared experience but can understand the motivations of each other and fuel a desire to support the aims of each other. It created an early sense of sisterhood and this in turn allowed a meeting which started by covering deeply sensitive and politically pertinent topics to morph very easily into the informal and raucous chatter about guessing each other's ages, calling out the teams we loved and hated and naming our footballing role models. 

WISE WORDS FROM ELAHA SAFDARI 

After the event, Elaha Safdari was also full of kind words. Elaha has been sidelined for some time due to a torn ACL ligament. This injury caused her to miss several promising opportunities with a few clubs, which she says has been tough. She turned her attention to helping the team as a coach and working with the Girl Power organisation alongside studying for coaching qualifications with the FA. 

"Girl Power symbolises empowerment and resilience, and being part of this organisation inspires me to contribute positively to both football and the community. It was a pleasure to play with the FURD team and celebrate Refugee Week together," she said. "We would love to play and meet with you again. From our interactions with FURD and its players, we learned about their commitment to diversity, inclusion, and community engagement. The players show great dedication, teamwork, and resilience, making them inspiring role models for everyone." 

Elaha confirmed the Girl Power have participated in several friendly matches against other community groups and local teams. "It's always a great experience to play and get to know other players while hearing about their journeys. We truly value these opportunities and enjoy every moment of them." she said. "Community groups can learn about Girl Power and support its work by visiting our website, following us on social media, and attending our events. Collaborating on community projects or reaching out directly for partnership opportunities can also be effective ways to support our initiatives." 

Elaha went on to explain that sometimes she struggles to concentrate on football and studies as her parents are still back in Afghanistan and she worries about them because they are in danger. This really brings home what an enormous ordeal Elaha and her fellow players have faced and continue to manage the consequences of. 

WE MEET AGAIN 

Since the June meeting, FURD joined Girl Power and 2 other teams -  Republica International from Leeds and Route One Rovers from Bradford, in an 11 a side tournament in Doncaster. Girl Power's experience playing together as a team really shone through as their skills dominated the match with FURD. As hard as it was to be beaten by them on this occasion, it was a greater pleasure to witness their joy through playing football together. It was also a chance to ask if there was any progress in their FIFA campaign. 

Khalida explained that in the two and a half years spent trying to get FIFA's attention, they had only had one meeting with them and that FIFA said that they are "observing and will review" the situation. Khalida explained that the campaign has advocates among human rights organisations and in the football world and had some media attention. But the fact remains that the AFA is controlled by the Taliban. "How can we trust that regime?" she said "It is against FIFA statutes. The men's football team is active while there are public executions in stadiums where games are played." 

Narges confirmed "We have support from MPs in Australia, Canada, the UK." So, all the building blocks for a successful campaign are there, even while the context remains very distressing and obstructive. 

GIRL POWER AT THE FURD CONFERENCE 

Finally, we were able to meet again when Girl Power attended the FURD 'Uniting Our Streets and Communities' Conference in December 2024. Here, Khalida spoke powerfully about the power of refugees even in the most difficult of circumstances. "In November 2021, people shared their stories about the Afghan footballers going to stay in the hotel in Doncaster because they were excited about it. But some people in Doncaster didn't want them at the hotel." 

The reception was so hostile at times that the Refugee Council arranged for additional security at the hotel. "Some of the girls had to give up their headscarves. They were attacked in a cafe. There was so much hate, it was difficult for me to explain - it is because of your identity, your title as a refugee. Politicians use the wrong narrative to gain some votes. They are writing narratives about us without us being included. We are people who are brave, who are resilient, who fought so many battles. Refugees bring so many resources. They can also be leaders, so let them lead because that is how you change the perspective." 

"With Girl Power, I am not all the time leading the project", Khalida went on to explain. "I try my best to mentor them, that's empowerment. They are changing the narrative, they are the leaders, they are not just the receivers." 

Khalida finished by bringing the conversation back to what unites us - football. "Football has been great - FURD, the FARE network. We are trying to stay away from the negative, we want to inspire. What the football world is missing is our resources, our talent, our bravery. Football is a beautiful game. Don't make it a privileged game, it is for all. ” 

Let us shine that resilience, inspiration and courage back towards Khalida and the entire Girl Power team. Support the Sport & Rights Alliance campaign, share the report, sign the petition. Let football be a vehicle of hope and change. 

Written by Sarah Choonara