The women of Afghanistan who’ve worked so hard to secure rights and push for an education for themselves are heroes whose efforts cannot be in vain. As the oppression of the Taliban comes into full focus, the world is watching those rights be stripped away from women who fought hard to secure their liberties — and from girls who never knew a world where they couldn’t walk the streets alone, play soccer, or have their faces shown in public.
The United States of America is a force for good in the world. It is a light pushing back against the darkness of regimes which wish to stifle freedom everywhere. It is at its best when it continues to speak out in support of those being treated in brutal, unjust ways.
Americans don’t leave their friends behind. This sentiment should include the friends we’ve made in pursuing the same things: equality, liberty, and freedom — including freedom for young women.
As Daily Wire reported, a former captain of Afghanistan’s female soccer team is telling female soccer players in the country to burn their uniforms and delete photos for their own safety as the Taliban takes control of the country.
Co-founder of the Afghan women’s soccer league, Khalida Popal, recently spoke to Reuters from Copenhagen. In a video interview, she said that she had always told women “to stand strong, to be bold, to be visible,” but she has changed her message.
“Today I’m calling them and telling them, take down their names, remove their identities, take down their photos for their safety. Even I’m telling them to burn down or get rid of your national team uniform,” she said.
“And that is painful for me, for someone as an activist who stood up and did everything possible to achieve and earn that identity as a women’s national team player. To earn that badge on the chest, to have the right to play and represent our country, how much we were proud.”
“They are so afraid. They are worried, they are scared, not only the players, but also the activists… they have nobody to go to, to seek protection, to ask for help if they are in danger,” she said of the current situation. “They are afraid that any time the door will be knocked.”
“What we are seeing is a country collapsing,” she added. “All the pride, happiness to be there to empower women and men of the country is like it was just wasted.”
This is not how it always was in Afghanistan.
An NPR article from November of last year detailed the soccer league and the plight its members had endured in order to get to a place of equality and increased freedom.
NPR reported on the championship of the Afghan women’s soccer league, saying that “Despite the conservative clothes and the gender segregation, this scene on a crisp fall day in mid-October was once unthinkable. It took the Taliban being toppled and nearly two decades of activism to get here.”
In recent days, the world has observed horrifying images of men and women handing their children over to soldiers at the Kabul airport, desperate to get them out of Afghanistan. The photos and videos have rocked America to its core and left many questioning our nation’s values.
Women once played soccer in a stadium in Kabul. It was the same place where the Taliban once dealt harsh and inhumane punishments against those who went against their edicts. “The punishments were so gruesome that when the stadium was renovated in 2007, contractors removed about two feet of soil to ensure people didn’t play on the remains of other Afghans,” Reuters noted last year.
Now, it appears that similar scenes might occur once more.
The former captain mentioned earlier, Khalida Popal, previously assisted in bringing awareness to allegations against the federation’s president regarding instances of physical abuse and rape. Popal said women put their lives at risk to speak up about the allegations. The president was banned for life by FIFA .
NPR reported, “Following the scandal, [Popal said] the Afghan government felt pressured to restart the league, to show the international community they were taking women’s sports seriously.”
“Thanks to those amazing heroes,” she said, “and because of their powerful voices, the women in Afghanistan, in football, are receiving such attention.”
This situation lends itself to the argument that international pressure does in fact help women around the world as they seek equal rights.
When Americans hear about allegations of sexual assault, misdemeanors, sexually inappropriate behavior against women occurring in sporting leagues, offices, organizations, and clubs, they are outraged. May they continue to be.
The word “inspiring” doesn’t do justice to describe the Afghan women’s soccer team. The international community that so vehemently fights for women’s equality must do all that it can to ensure that these girls play on the field once again.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.