Refuses to give up his sport – must train in secret

– I am not the same person anymore. After the Taliban came, it’s like I’m dead, says Noura (20) to the news agency AP.

Yet she still trains – in secret.

Growing up, she defied her family’s opposition to her doing sports. She says that her mother scolded her, and neighbors shouted. But she never gave up. She loves her sport.

The Associated Press has met a number of sports girls and women who tell what life is like under the Taliban. They tell of threats and incitement by the Taliban. Therefore, they speak to AP under complete anonymity.

The photos were taken in autumn 2022, but have recently been published. The women anonymized themselves with the help of burqas, although this is not their usual clothing when exercising.

They want to tell about life under the Taliban. They have not only been banned from playing sports, but several say that they are actively harassed and threatened because they played sports in the past. Even private training they are harassed for.

Revealed by own success

20-year-old Noura feels devastated. She comes from a poor family that moved from the countryside to Kabul. She made friends among the boys in the street and started playing football with them. When she was nine, a coach discovered her, and encouraged her to sign up for a girls’ team.

She hid her training from everyone except her father, but when she turned 13 she was exposed because she was voted the best soccer player in her age group and her picture was published on television.

– For most people this would be a great honor and honor to appear on TV, for me it was just bitter, and the beginning of my worst period, she says to AP.

The mother was furious and gave her a beating.

She continued to play soccer, but again she was exposed by her own success. Her team won the national championship, and again her picture was in the papers. Again she was beaten by her mother.

Snap together

She snuck out to attend the medal ceremony, breaking down in tears as the crowd cheered.

– I cried because I felt so lonely and everything was difficult, she says.

When her mother found out that she had attended the medal ceremony, she burned her soccer clothes and soccer shoes.

Noura gave up on football, but eventually sought out boxing. Her mother finally gave up. She understood that nothing could keep her daughter away from sports.

The day the Taliban took Kabul, the coach called Noura’s mother. He told her to tell her daughter that she needed to go to the airport and get out of the country. But the mother never passed on the message.

Lose hope

When she later learned that the coach had tried to get her out of the country, she cut herself above the wrists and was sent to hospital.

– The world went completely dark, she says.

Three months later, a person who said he was from the Taliban called the family and threatened Noura. Terrified, she went to her family’s hometown, but returned a few weeks later. However, the fear sits in her every day.

– Even though life was difficult before, I at least had the self-confidence. I knew that if I worked hard, I could achieve anything I set my mind to. Now I don’t have much hope anymore, she says to AP.

The sports ban is part of the Taliban’s constant tightening of the lives of girls and women in Afghanistan. Since taking power in August 2021, they have closed schools for girls after primary school.

Broken promises

Recently they also closed the universities to women, and they have announced that women working for aid organizations are unwelcome. This step could affect organizations that contribute invaluable emergency aid to Afghanistan.

This week, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Secretary General, Jan Egeland, is in Kabul in an attempt to get the Taliban to reverse the decision.

– I am here to tell the Taliban’s leaders and others who can influence them, that we must be allowed to resume work with female employees, says Egeland in a statement.

– We cannot work without our female colleagues, and we do not want to work without them, he says.

– Lives will be lost

The Norwegian Refugee Council has close to 500 women among its employees in Afghanistan, and these work on everything from education and health to food aid and legal advice. Egeland states that lives will be lost if the Taliban do not reverse the decision.

When the Taliban are pressed, they often respond with promises that they will offer the girls school and sports, provided they are allowed to build their own schools and sports halls for women. But these are promises they have never shown the will to live up to.

When the Taliban were in Norway, they promised that they would let girls go to school beyond the seventh grade, but they have never shown any signs of living up to this promise either.

It was also promised that women could continue at the university as long as they complied with dress codes according to Sharia law, but even though shawls were mandated at the university, the women were kicked out.

The Taliban require women to cover their hair and face in public. They are not allowed to visit parks or gyms. Their lives are altogether very limited.

Even before the Taliban took control of the country, it was difficult for women to play sports in the conservative country. But women’s sports teams were emerging.

Escaped from the tournament

AP is talking to an experienced MMA athlete, who tells about the dramatic day in August 2021 when the Taliban entered the city.

On this day, she attended a tournament in Kabul, when information began to circulate that the Taliban had taken up a position at the city border.

All girls and women fled from the hall. This was the last time she competed.

Imprisoned

Months later, she tried to offer private training classes for girls, but the Taliban raided the building where they trained and arrested them all.

– In custody we were harassed and humiliated, she says.

After negotiations between the Taliban and the elderly in the local community, they were released on condition that they promised not to play sports anymore.

However, she still trains at home and sometimes teaches some close friends.

– Life has become very tough, but I am a warrior. I will continue to live and fight, she says.