An Afghan ‘voice for voiceless sisters’

The Afghan women's national soccer team is thriving, in exile, as a special member of an Australian women's soccer league.

Last summer, Khalida Popal knew the Taliban were winning in Afghanistan. But she hoped Kabul might hold. As program director of the Afghan women’s national soccer team, she hoped “my girls” had begun to make plans to leave.

It had been 10 years since Ms. Popal herself had fled, physically attacked at gunpoint for daring to play soccer and not be ashamed of it. But this was different. The players who had remained had continued to speak out against the Taliban. Western powers had held them up as a model of a new Afghanistan. Now, “all of a sudden, the enemy was outside their door,” she says.

Ms. Popal’s story could so easily be one more example of the failed promise of equal rights for Afghan women – herself a refugee in Denmark, her team in danger of terrible retribution. 

Instead, she’s writing a dramatically different ending. With her help, all her players escaped Afghanistan safely. Soon, she’ll travel to Australia, where the team is thriving as a special member of an Australian league, supported by one of the country’s biggest professional clubs, Melbourne Victory. And her own Girl Power organization in Denmark is helping female refugees find opportunities and play sports across Europe.

But in that moment some 12 months ago, the women of her team “were crying. They desperately needed help. And I asked myself, what can I do from Denmark?”

She could think of one answer: “I am the voice for voiceless sisters. I have a tool.” She could do interviews. She could call for help.

And help came, first in getting her team out of Afghanistan, then in bringing them together again on the field – half a world away in Australia. There are challenges, from understanding a new language to missing those left behind. But there is also joy. A recent story by ESPN had defenders barking instructions at one another and the team’s top scorer exuberantly emulating the famous goal celebration of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

It is a far cry from Ms. Popal’s own experience as a player in Afghanistan, when the women had to play what they called “silent football” during practices. No verbal coordination between teammates. No goal celebrations. Just the thump of a ball that stubbornly refused to stay quiet.

“Prostitutes,” they were called. At least if they stayed quiet, maybe they’d attract less trouble. They even had to play their “home” games in other countries. But Ms. Popal couldn’t stay quiet. As the first captain of the national soccer team, she says, “The foundation of the Afghan women’s national team was activism.” She accused politicians of corruption and abuse of power, preventing women from inclusion in society. That led to a physical attack at gunpoint in 2011. She fled, first to Norway, then to Denmark.

It’s an experience she knows all too well. Ms. Popal had already been a refugee once before – when she was a young girl and the Taliban rose to power the first time. “I have lived this life,” she says. Now, “I’m trying to use my experience to help these young women.”