Khalida Popal, ex-captain of the Afghan women’s national team, fought for women’s rights in her country for years. Now she has to advise desperate players to flee and hide.
Khalida Popal is receiving countless desperate calls and voice messages these days. After two decades, the Taliban have regained control of their country. The 34-year-old can hardly believe the speed of the collapse of the Afghan government.
In 2007, it was she who founded Afghanistan’s first national women’s team. She campaigned for the role of girls and women in her country to be strengthened. “We were so proud to wear the shirt,” Popal recalled in an interview with the Associated Press. “It was the best and best feeling ever.”
Khalida Popal: “Your life is in danger.”
But these days, Popal can only advise players to flee their homes, flee from the neighbors they know as pioneer players, and try to erase their history – especially their activism against the Taliban.
“I encouraged them to switch off their social media channels, delete photos, flee and hide,” says Popal. “It breaks my heart because all these years we’ve worked to increase the visibility of women, and now I’m telling my women in Afghanistan to shut up and go. Their lives are in danger.”
Khalida Popal knows what it is like to live in fear. In 1996 she and her family fled after the Taliban conquered Kabul and lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan. She returned in 2001 when the Taliban’s rule ended. Under the protection of the international community, Popal was optimistic that women’s rights would be promoted. “My generation hoped to rebuild the country and improve the situation for the next generation of women and men in the country,” she says. “So, with other young women, I started using football as a tool to empower women and girls.
Khalida Popal fled to Denmark in 2016
Popal encouraged her teammates to use their platforms to express their views as the Taliban retook territories through escalating attacks. “I’ve received so many death threats and challenges because I was quoted on national television,” she said. “I have called the Taliban our enemy.”
In 2011, Popal stopped playing to focus on coordinating the team as director of the Afghan Football Association. But the threats continued and she was eventually forced to flee Afghanistan and apply for asylum in Denmark in 2016. “My life was in great danger,” she says.
But she did not let the soccer players down and, from her exile, helped to expose physical and sexual abuse, death threats and rape, in which the Afghan association leadership was also involved.
Most of the players have left their homes
With the withdrawal of the US troops, all hope has now been lost. “The women in Afghanistan believed the promises, but they left because there were no longer any national interests. Then why all these promises?” asks Popal. “That’s what my girls say, who cry and send voice messages. Why didn’t you say that you would just leave? Then at least we could have protected ourselves.” The players are devastated. “They cry. They just cry … they are sad. They are just desperate. They have so many questions. What happens to them is not fair.”
Most of them would have left their homes to hide with relatives because their neighbors know they are gamblers. “They sit there, they are afraid. The Taliban are everywhere. They go around and spread fear,” said Popal. Given the current situation, it’s hard to imagine that the Afghan women’s national team will ever play again. “The women have lost hope,” said Popal.
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
