The IOC does not want political messages during the Paris Games. A member of the refugee team at the Olympics, Afghan Bgirl Manizha Talash was disqualified after she unveiled on stage Friday a cape bearing the inscription “Free Afghan women”, we learned this Saturday from the international dancesport federation.
“Bgirl Talash has been disqualified for displaying a political message on her attire in violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter,” the federation said in a written message sent to AFP. The rule prohibits athletes from expressing their political views at the Olympics. In the first duel of the day, the 21-year-old had charged into Dutch Bgirl India just after revealing a blue cape with the message.
Born in Kabul, a city under the Taliban regime since 2021, Bgirl Talash, real name Manizha Talash, left her country to seek refuge in Pakistan for a year before settling in Spain with her two brothers. “I didn’t leave Afghanistan because I’m afraid of the Taliban or because I can’t live there. I left to do what I can for the girls of Afghanistan, for my life and my future,” she said before the competition.
“I took the risk of becoming a target”
In Kabul, she discovered her sport on the internet before joining a local club. Despite the risks – the association was forced to change training locations several times after death threats – she continued to practice.
“I took the risk of becoming a target. I feel fear, but I will not give up,” she told AFP in 2021. In Paris, she was able to benefit from the universality quota for the first appearance of the discipline at the Olympic Games.
On Friday at La Concorde, she lost in the first round of the competition against India before being disqualified. Japanese Bgirl Ami, 25, became the first Olympic champion in the history of this dance art from hip-hop culture. Six Afghan athletes – including three not recognized by the Taliban government – were competing in Paris in cycling, athletics, swimming and judo.