“It is for all women in Afghanistan” – Libération

2024-08-29 19:59:21

The 25-year-old para-taekwondoist won a bronze medal on Thursday, August 29, three years after he left Kabul to escape the Taliban. A first for the Paralympic swimming representative of refugees.

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Funny way to write stories. This Thursday, August 29, Zakia Khudadadi became the first Paralympic youth refugee representative to win a medal at the Games… without doing anything. Well yes: a little after 8 pm, a 25-year-old Afghan woman descended the best steps of the Grand Palais. He then climbed onto the carpet and greeted the audience. Then he went down and finished: and the bronze statue was sure of him. His Moroccan opponent, who passed out on a stretcher earlier in the day after a kick to the head, was unable to participate in this small final under 47 kg of para-taekwondo.

Reducing Zakia Khudadadi’s award to a fight won by defeat would be unfair. Let’s be clear: the 25-year-old athlete fully deserves his place on the podium. About qualifying for the Games, first (it’s the European championship of the government, all the same). Then won two of the three fights this Thursday to reach the lower end, easily beaten in the regions by a lower point (4-3) by the Uzbek Ziyodakhon Isakova, world number 2 and the future finalist of the tournament.

“For Afghan women”

Seeing an Afghan girl being hailed as a French woman on a box in Paris is nothing short of a miracle. Three years ago, almost to the day, he was preparing in Kabul for the Tokyo Games when the Taliban took the Afghan capital by force. After several days of living in hiding, Zakia Khudadadi fled his country of origin, which had been evacuated by the French authorities, to pursue his Paralympic dream. Since the failed competition in Japan – it is difficult to do otherwise with such preparation – the taekwondo player has sought refuge in Paris, training in Paris with the French team, at the National Institute of Sport, Management and of work (Insep) and dreams of being. natural As if he still had to prove his innocence, the fighter, along with his coach, threw the flag of the refugee representative after his short finish. And after he followed another member of the staff, with a blue-white-red flag, all to the delight of a French citizen who was hailed as one of their own.

When we met her in the middle of August in the temple of sport in the east of Paris, the twenty-something has everything of a Frenchwoman: she understands the language to perfection and talks to us about the Parisian landscape as as if you always knew. But when asked who he would think of when the medal was placed around his neck, his eyes turned without a doubt to the women who are still being oppressed in his home country.

Unsurprisingly, after his mini-finale on Wednesday evening, all his details were devoted to them. “It’s a medal for all the girls and women in Afghanistan, and for all the refugee girls in Paris and around the world.he told reporters. Today in my country there is no opportunity for women to play sports or go to school. But I know that many women and girls are able to see me on television today. I think this medal gives us the strength to fight the Taliban, the politicians, to face all these things that they don’t give us. Together, we will not give up, until peace and freedom.”