Khalida Popal: Former Afghanistan football captain speaks out on her country’s fall to the Taliban
CNNCNN — On August 15, Khalida Popal watched from Denmark as her country fell into the grip of the Taliban. “I remember like going to this scary and dangerous way to a safe place to seek protection and live as a refugee in Pakistan.” ‘Our players are totally helpless’ Since then, Popal has continued to use sport as a platform for activism, launching the Girl Power Organisation in 2014 to support refugees and migrants and advocating for women’s rights at multiple conferences for organizations such as FIFA, UEFA and the United Nations. “We have given so many sacrifices in the past 20 years of our life to achieve this collective, the pride of representing our country, the ownership of representing the national team of Afghanistan,” she says. “We used football to stand for our right as women but also to be the voice for voiceless sisters that they were still living under the regime of Taliban,” Popal adds. “The international community entered our country with the words, with big sentences, words defending the right of women of Afghanistan, we will not let the women of Afghanistan to live in darkness of Taliban again.” “We have done everything to be part of the growth and progress to also represent the new image of Afghanistan of the strong woman of Afghanistan, but now the world forgotten us.
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