Exiled Afghanistan women's national team say FIFA's rules hinder participation after Taliban's return to power

Australia hosting the Women's World Cup last year was remarkably convenient for Mursal Sadat, a resident of the host nation for roughly two years. She and her teammates were invited to tour the locker rooms at one of the stadiums hosting the tournament, something she was naturally excited about.

The visit to the locker rooms was more emotional than she anticipated, though.

"I couldn't stop myself from feeling that once upon a time, I was in this locker room," she said. "There was my name, there was my jersey, there was my national flag and 'Afghanistan' written in the back of the locker room. We were able to compete and play and the stress and anxiety that we got from stepping onto the pitch, specifically when we were playing against good teams … I cried a lot that day."

Sadat was once a center back who played at the youth and senior levels for the Afghanistan women's national team but fled the country when the Taliban returned to power as U.S. troops pulled out in Aug. 2021. Women were quickly banned from most public-facing activities, including sports. Upon the advice of Khalida Popal, the founder of the women's national team who already lived in exile in Denmark for several years, female soccer players in Afghanistan deleted their social media accounts and made high-risk treks elsewhere.

Though Sadat and her teammates were not banned from actually kicking a ball around post-exile, the return of the Taliban has stripped them of their ability to represent the national team. It is why the trip to the Women's World Cup elicited such a strong reaction.

"It just felt like everything was stolen from us," she said. "We had no longer our right to represent the country that we were born in and we do not have the right to go to any other team because we were playing for Afghanistan. We do not want to play for another team, either, because that's our country. That's what we want to do. It's never just about us playing for ourselves. It's about all those women who do not have a voice and we want to be their voice."

Stuck in limbo

The Afghanistan women's national team has not played since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, limited by an oppressive variety of red tape.

The Taliban's extreme restrictions placed on girls and women are naturally the starting point. The women's national team have not played since the Taliban's return in Oct. 2021, but in 2023, they were placed in the draw to qualify for this summer's Olympics in Paris. A strange series of events unfolded with that announcement from the International Olympic Committee. First, the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) issued a statement announcing the formation of a new women's national team and inviting players living abroad to participate, a plan that reportedly had FIFA's support . The statement, as it turned out, was issued by the person who was listed as the AFF's media director at the time, but lived in Albania.

The AFF cleared things up soon enough -- not only would they forbid players in exile to play for the national team, they were unwilling to even set up a women's national team considering the laws of the Taliban.

FIFA has not been much help, either, the players argue. World soccer's governing body has deferred to the AFF, citing their rule that member associations need to greenlight any and all national teams. As Popal notes, that sanctioning will not come from the AFF as long as the Taliban remain in charge of Afghanistan.

"The Taliban says that women should not belong anywhere, women should not be active in society so by putting that responsibility to our football federation that is controlled by [the] Taliban, it will not be possible," she said.

FIFA has not backed down from its stance that they will go through the AFF to seek a solution.

"FIFA has been closely following the situation of the Afghan football community within the country and abroad, especially the situation of female players," a FIFA spokesperson told CBS Sports in a statement. "FIFA believes that dialogue through the member association in Afghanistan is the best way to advance women's football and the interest of women there, and we are in regular dialogue with them on this matter. The selection of players and teams representing a Member Association is considered as an internal affair of the Member Association. Therefore, FIFA does not have the right to officially recognise any team unless it is first recognised by the concerned Member Association. However, ensuring access to football for both female and male players without discrimination and in safety is a key priority for FIFA. FIFA is therefore continuing to monitor the situation very closely and, as mentioned, FIFA remains in close contact with the Afghan Football Federation and other stakeholders with the aim to promote access to football in Afghanistan. FIFA has also been supporting the evacuation of over 150 Afghan sports persons and human rights defenders at risk in November 2021 and continues its support for this group."

The players also argue that FIFA's refusal to challenge the AFF is a violation of its own anti-discrimination policies. The governing body says its human rights mission includes "working with its member associations on the development and implementation of anti-discrimination action plans, as well as the promotion of disability football," though it seems like FIFA have done little work with the AFF in that regard. The United Nations, for example, has warned that the Taliban's persecution of girls and women could be a "crime against humanity," while the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Taliban's ban on women's sports could lead to "gender apartheid."

"What they keep saying, FIFA, is that, 'We are monitoring the situation of Afghanistan,'" Popal said. "This 'monitoring' will never change anything. When they communicate with the media that they are monitoring the situation of Afghanistan, what does that mean? Are they talking, having a conversation with [the] Taliban?"

The exiled players, as a result, have been resigned to playing on their own in their new homes. A youth team played a friendly against non-FIFA team Surrey in May 2022, while a large number of players who found refuge in Australia play for Melbourne Victory FC AWT, a brand-new team formed in March 2022 under the umbrella of the Melbourne Victory. While it has been a source of joy for the players, Sada said it has also stunted the women's team growth as athletes.

"It was like a dream came true because we always dreamed of playing for a professional team but unfortunately because of the rules, we have to start from scratch, from State League 4 which was pretty easy for us," Sadat said. "Then we got promoted to State League 3 and then we got promoted to State League 2. We still do not find these games challenging for us but it is better. It's good that we have the team playing together."

To escape this sporting purgatory, the Afghanistan women's national team are making a pitch to FIFA -- collaborate with them on an exception to their rules and allow the team to return to play.

Inaction at the top

In each pocket of the world the exiled Afghanistan women's national team find themselves in, the players have advocated for a plan to return to play. Popal has been the campaign's figurehead, most noticeably in public statements of support from U.S. lawmakers and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai alike. Popal, though, also engaged in conversations with some of the sport's higher-ups. Though the contents of those discussions remain confidential, the inaction from officials at FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) speaks volumes.

"Unfortunately, they have all the time ignored this but [when] we tried to meet them face-to-face, they have ignored us," Popal said.

She acutely feels the way FIFA passes the buck by calling the matter of reinstating the Afghanistan women's national team an "internal" matter and claims that AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa's friendship with the head of the AFF, Mohammad Yosuf Kargar, does not help things. Popal said she asked the AFF to tell FIFA they cannot bear the responsibility of sanctioning the women's national team because of the Taliban's laws, hoping it would force FIFA's hand to act.

Inaction from those at the top, including FIFA, comes as little surprise to those who have been paying attention. FIFA has come a long way from selecting a president who once supported banning women from playing soccer , which Joao Havelange did in his native Brazil before leading world soccer's governing body from 1974 to 1998. Yet despite the organization's claims to support women's soccer in this period of rapid development, including at the FIFA-organized Women's World Cup, they seem to develop cold feet when things get complicated. There are 10 FIFA member associations that do not have women's national teams and a further nine that have neglected their women's side so much that they are unranked because they have not played in the last two years. One such example is the Qatar women's national team -- those responsible for Qatar's successful bid to host the men's World Cup in 2022 said developing the women's side would be a meaningful sign of the tournament's impact. A year and a half after the World Cup, though, the team essentially does not exist .

"The whole structure of football -- and that's how it's built -- it is built by man, for man and woman is just added on," Popal explained. "A great example is [the] Afghanistan football federation, right? They just remove the section that's for women. They've removed but the game continued. The men's national team is traveling in their national camps, they are playing friendly games. They're doing everything possible and they are getting the support, the funds, their budget from FIFA but you don't see from any of these organizations, anything about: 'What about women's football?'"

Pitching a return to play

The Afghanistan women's national team's request is simple to describe -- they would like to be reinstated in time to compete in qualifiers for upcoming tournaments, like the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, and be recognized as a separate entity from the AFF. The players are aware that it is no small ask, but what they propose is teamwork.

"We are offering [to] work [in] collaboration," Popal said. "We are telling FIFA and organizations like FIFA, let's work together to make our game more beautiful and inclusive. … People like us are actually offering solutions because we have the know-how. We have life experiences. We are actually bringing a solution to you, you just need to stamp it."

Popal has held conversations with high-ranking officials in the game through a third party about organizing and funding a unique venture, though the details of those meetings remain confidential. She no doubt hopes to leverage her wide-ranging list of contacts. Retired Australian international and human rights activist Craig Foster helped a large number of Afghan players enter his native country, while Leeds United and Kim Kardashian assisted the members of the youth team who fled to England.

Popal has also stayed in touch with the 200-plus players and family members who she has helped escape Afghanistan, arming them with resources to become advocates for the team. Sadat has used some of those learnings to ask Australian officials if they can be the players' representatives in sporting forums, continuing the advocacy she started at 15 with UNICEF.

"I see my role as a bridge between grassroots and structure." Popal said. "Or I will call it the well-developed world -- they are people with resources, either in sport but also in other sectors in the society."

She and the other exiled players understand the uphill battle of advocating to be an exception to a rule, but there is some precedent they can call upon. During the five decade long ban on women's soccer in the U.K. that was lifted in 1972, the Women's Football Association served as the governing body for the women's game in England.

Larger governing bodies have also stepped in. UEFA's order in late 1971 forced European soccer associations to organize women's national teams , while the International Olympic Committee actually barred Afghanistan from competing at the 2000 Games in Sydney during the Taliban's first period of rule. Even FIFA has been credited in recent years with applying enough pressure on Iran's soccer federation to lift a ban on women in stadiums , even if there remains room for improvement .

What Popal ultimately proposes is a happy medium of sorts.

"The purpose of our campaign is to first get FIFA on board to recognize the Afghanistan women's national team in exile," she said, and allow the Afghanistan women's national team from exile to represent Afghanistan from [the] diaspora and also just separate us from the Afghanistan Football Federation and not put the pressure on Afghanistan Football Federation that is governed by [the] Taliban."

'Reminding ourselves why we used football in the first place'

Fatima Foladi was a teenager when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and remembers that her social media accounts were not the only identifying information she had to leave behind before she and her sister eventually fled for Massachusetts.

"Leaving Afghanistan was one of the most difficult periods of my life," the recent high school graduate said. "I had to abandon everything I've achieved, including my medals, jerseys and memories. My family burned them after I left the country."

She cites scoring her first goal while wearing the badge at a Central Asian Football Association tournament in Tajikistan as a fond memory, but the one she treasures the most is heartwarmingly ordinary.

"Making tea was my responsibility," she recalls of her time representing Afghanistan. "Sitting together and analyzing games over tea and giving each other feedback was incredibly cool and I will never forget that moment. It was so nice that we could talk to each other [about] how we can improve each other, how we can help each other or giving feedback to each other was nice. … That is my dream, to get back with my team."

Foladi is far from the only one who treasures those moments that have been snatched from them, but they chase not only camaraderie with their teammates. Since Popal founded the the team in 2007, the Afghanistan women's national team have always seen themselves as a symbol of resistance against the oppressive sexism in their home country, even during the years after the U.S.' invasion.

"Women's football in Afghanistan, the whole idea and purpose was to use the platform and to make changes for the women of Afghanistan and to be the voice for our voiceless sisters," Popal said. "The situation wasn't so great for women even before Taliban and now it got worse so it is important to keep reminding ourselves why we used football in the first place."

As Sadat describes it, it will also make their sacrifices worth it.

"For the women who are outside of Afghanistan and in exile," Sadat said about a potential return to play, "It will mean for them, another chance to represent their country, a pride moment and to be a stronger voice together for women who are still in [the] home country and they cannot raise their voice. They cannot do anything. It will be like giving a butterfly their wings again to fly and to spread their beauty everywhere and spread the message of peace so for us."