The Fort Worth Press - Afghan women footballers revel in freedom to beat British MPs

USD -
AED 3.672967
AFN 70.99998
ALL 94.750065
AMD 396.4701
ANG 1.804227
AOA 914.496076
ARS 1035.795297
AUD 1.610163
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.698524
BAM 1.901364
BBD 2.02132
BDT 121.6387
BGN 1.89826
BHD 0.376892
BIF 2901
BMD 1
BND 1.370571
BOB 6.917805
BRL 6.119297
BSD 1.001235
BTN 85.956351
BWP 14.030398
BYN 3.275995
BYR 19600
BZD 2.01082
CAD 1.43879
CDF 2869.497606
CHF 0.911301
CLF 0.036386
CLP 1003.989981
CNY 7.32645
CNH 7.352975
COP 4331.24
CRC 507.568319
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 106.697124
CZK 24.368301
DJF 177.720236
DKK 7.238304
DOP 61.38501
DZD 136.055038
EGP 50.610305
ERN 15
ETB 126.049992
EUR 0.970095
FJD 2.32835
FKP 0.791982
GBP 0.809445
GEL 2.815016
GGP 0.791982
GHS 14.709849
GIP 0.791982
GMD 71.000365
GNF 8647.999682
GTQ 7.725735
GYD 209.371506
HKD 7.779485
HNL 25.450175
HRK 7.172906
HTG 130.606809
HUF 401.722011
IDR 16243.85
ILS 3.66623
IMP 0.791982
INR 85.90465
IQD 1310
IRR 42087.495264
ISK 140.76007
JEP 0.791982
JMD 156.78135
JOD 0.709298
JPY 158.346498
KES 129.502909
KGS 87.00007
KHR 4040.000323
KMF 474.999785
KPW 899.999441
KRW 1460.74971
KWD 0.30824
KYD 0.834261
KZT 527.293054
LAK 21797.510284
LBP 89600.000278
LKR 296.307458
LRD 186.999436
LSL 18.705338
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.930105
MAD 10.03725
MDL 18.469031
MGA 4695.000112
MKD 59.70142
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.99987
MOP 8.021406
MRU 39.85041
MUR 46.598062
MVR 15.400507
MWK 1733.999463
MXN 20.38459
MYR 4.502498
MZN 63.90184
NAD 18.701736
NGN 1542.159948
NIO 36.730212
NOK 11.408665
NPR 137.523756
NZD 1.78369
OMR 0.384971
PAB 1.001181
PEN 3.781501
PGK 4.064982
PHP 58.58034
PKR 278.450318
PLN 4.14766
PYG 7923.236958
QAR 3.641037
RON 4.823199
RSD 113.56058
RUB 104.489398
RWF 1386
SAR 3.753651
SBD 8.43942
SCR 14.900983
SDG 600.999971
SEK 11.161205
SGD 1.368355
SHP 0.791982
SLE 22.780034
SLL 20969.503029
SOS 571.500853
SRD 35.100499
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.760281
SYP 2512.530243
SZL 18.726049
THB 34.643506
TJS 10.951448
TMT 3.51
TND 3.179721
TOP 2.342103
TRY 35.34664
TTD 6.789613
TWD 32.857499
TZS 2489.9996
UAH 42.342047
UGX 3707.808368
UYU 44.029865
UZS 12939.999798
VES 53.005429
VND 25382.5
VUV 118.722003
WST 2.762788
XAF 637.659365
XAG 0.033263
XAU 0.000376
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.77088
XOF 630.000276
XPF 115.603264
YER 249.249888
ZAR 18.90425
ZMK 9001.198216
ZMW 28.004958
ZWL 321.999592
  • JRI

    -0.0400

    12.18

    -0.33%

  • BCC

    -0.7200

    117.5

    -0.61%

  • AZN

    -0.1600

    66.48

    -0.24%

  • SCS

    0.0290

    11.229

    +0.26%

  • RIO

    0.1800

    58.37

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    -0.9600

    57.64

    -1.67%

  • GSK

    -0.2940

    33.796

    -0.87%

  • CMSD

    -0.1150

    23.345

    -0.49%

  • RBGPF

    -2.6900

    59.31

    -4.54%

  • BTI

    -0.2650

    36.515

    -0.73%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0300

    7.17

    -0.42%

  • VOD

    -0.2320

    8.178

    -2.84%

  • BP

    -0.8800

    30.95

    -2.84%

  • BCE

    -0.3450

    23.515

    -1.47%

  • CMSC

    -0.1300

    23.1

    -0.56%

  • RELX

    0.6400

    46.62

    +1.37%

Afghan women footballers revel in freedom to beat British MPs
Afghan women footballers revel in freedom to beat British MPs

Afghan women footballers revel in freedom to beat British MPs

Young Afghan women footballers on Tuesday enjoyed a one-sided drubbing over a select team of British female MPs -- but the score was secondary to their freedom to play at all.

Text size:

Back home, in recent days, the Taliban have reverted to misogynistic policies. Girls have once again been thrown out of secondary schools, and women told they cannot board planes without a male relative.

For members of the Afghanistan women's youth development football team -- resettled in the UK last November after an evacuation flight funded by US celebrity Kim Kardashian -- there remains deep concern for family and friends left behind.

But for 40 minutes, at the drizzly South London ground of non-league club Dulwich Hamlet, they focused on what they do best in a match against the UK Women's Parliamentary Football Club.

"I'm very proud of them," Khalida Popal, an activist and former captain of the Afghan women's team, told AFP after coaching her charges for the game.

"They're practising their human rights, and their freedom to play football, and to be together -- that's the most beautiful thing," she said.

"They're very strong human beings, knowing what they have been through, the trauma, the violence, everything that they have witnessed."

Former sports minister Tracey Crouch, co-captain for the MPs, shrugged with good humour at the final result.

Nobody bothered keeping score after the Afghan women's lead reached double digits.

"They're all really good, we're all really bad," Crouch said.

"But that's not the point. The point is that we have played this amazing game," she added.

"We're all really privileged, quite humbled, to play these girls, they've just been through so much."

- Painful -

The evacuation flight to Britain brought 35 female footballers and their families, a total of 130 people, in the weeks after the Taliban recaptured Kabul as US-led Western forces quit Afghanistan.

After several months off the pitch as they started new lives in Britain, the Afghan women were just happy to be playing again, their captain Sabreyah said.

But she turned tearful reflecting on those now chafing under Taliban rule.

"My friends are kept home every day," Sabreyah, who is in her early 20s and gave only one name, said through an interpreter.

"I'm really upset that the girls of my country can't even get education. It is really painful for me.

"I faced a lot of problems to play football, but now the problems have only increased."

Popal, who organised the exfiltration flight, said the young women were determined to make a success of their new lives in Britain.

"But they're also missing home. They're still in shock of what happened in Afghanistan and why it happened," she said.

L.Rodriguez--TFWP