The fears of the aid worker Silvia Ricchieri: “Fifteen Afghan footballers of the champion team of Afghanistan would have fled to Iran but there is no news of another six”
Fifteen Afghan soccer players from Herat team, formation champion of Afghanistan, they would have fled to Iran. There is no news of six others. This is the alarm raised by the NGO of Florence Cospe, which has cooperated with this football team in its projects.
«As soon as the rapid advance of the Taliban was clear, many fled and it seems that they made it in Iran – says Silvia Ricchieri, cooperating for years in Afghanistan – They are young and single, for them the risk of violence and retaliation by the Taliban is very high. Unfortunately we have no news of six and neither of them trainer. We are very worried”.
A few days ago, the former captain of the Afghan women’s national team, Khalida Popal, who fled to Denmark with her family following the threats received, in an interview with Reuters, had urged the footballers of her country to delete their social accounts and burn theirs. equipment as a safety measure: “It is painful for me to say this because I have done everything to obtain and conquer the possibility of having a women’s national team and of being able to play in it”.
After the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, football had timidly started to spread even among girls. Over a thousand players were registered in the associations active in six provinces of the country – Herat, Bamyan, Ghazni, Jowzjan, Balkh, and the capital Kabul, where there were 22 teams. There was a championship and a national one, born in 2007. Women’s Afghanistan had participated in some international tournaments in recent years (in 2014, it had finished third in the South Asian Games). All the players live abroad.
To be uncertain, and in danger, it is not only the fate of the players, but also that of all Afghan sports. Zakia Khudadadi, in which day she was due to arrive in Tokyo to become the first Afghan athlete to compete in the Paralympics. “All my photos and videos are transmitted in the virtual world and I’m waiting for something to happen to me and my family at any time – she said when asked on Facebook by Ansa -. This is the height of fear and panic ».
August 19, 2021 (change August 19, 2021 | 15:39)
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