August 23 – FIFA has written to a number of governments to request the emergency evacuation of female players from Afghanistan.
The players, like many other thousands of women, are said to fear for their lives following the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan capital Kabul.
FIFA said the situation in Afghanistan “remains unstable and very worrying”.
“We remain in contact with the Afghanistan Football Federation, and other stakeholders, and continue to receive updates from players in the country.”
FIFpro, the international players’ union, is also calling for help, saying in a statement: “The ambition is to bring as many people to safety as possible.”
Last week, former Afghanistan national women’s team captain Khalida Popal, whose claims of sexual abuse against disgraced former Afghan Football Federation president Keramuddin Keram led to FIFA banning him, said many female players have gone into hiding.
“I have not been able to sleep, I have been crying and feeling helpless,” said Popal who was pivotal in forming the first Afghanistan women’s football team in 2007.
Haley Carter, former assistant coach of the Afghan women’s team, is among those to have been in contact with a number of players in hiding.
Carter said she had received a message from one player saying: “They are going to kill us. They don’t want girls to play football and we’re in risk.”
Players who have spoken up for women’s rights are particularly at risk.
“As a champion of activists, we are greatly concerned about those athletes who have, for many years, been outspoken advocates for improved human rights in the country,” FIFpro said on Twitter.
Current national team captain Shabnam Mobarez, who lives in the United States, says the Afghan Football Federation has given up on the team.
“They are hidden in the home of family or friends, without revealing their identity,” she said. “Even the Afghan Football Federation members and staff simply disappeared, they were supposed to protect them and there is no one there. It looks like the people who had the money left and now we have all these helpless women left to fend for themselves.”
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