In Zakia Khudadadi’s daily life, there is no real room for days off. On this Sunday, August 4, 2024, the para-taekwondo athlete is taking advantage of a rare break in her sports training to swap her kimono for a shirt and blazer. Three weeks before the start of the Paralympic Games, this 24-year-old athlete has a meeting under the vaults of the Petit Palais, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, to lead a completely different type of fight: the media coverage of her story, closely linked to that of millions of Afghan women. Crédit Coopératif, a bank in the BCPE group that supports her financially through the Pacte de Performance Foundation, invited her to speak in front of several dozen clients and partners, gathered for the Olympic Games in the main hall of the building – located just a few meters from the Grand Palais where Zakia Khudadadi will lead her first fight, on August 29.
Confident, now accustomed to cameras and public speaking, the young woman steps onto the stage and seizes the opportunity to recount once again the series of events that led her to seek refuge in France. “In Afghanistan, being born a girl is already a shame. On top of that, I was born with a disability,” she summed up in a video retracing her journey, broadcast a few minutes earlier. Born a woman, with an atrophied arm and belonging to the Hazara Shiite minority, Zakia Khudadadi had to fight three times to practice her sport, find clubs and coaches, and participate in international competitions. “After the Taliban took power, I had to start all over again from scratch. And it was very hard,” she added in front of the audience, in almost perfect French.
However, nothing predestined Zakia Khudadadi to master this language. Three years ago, the athlete would never have believed that she would one day train at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep) in Vincennes, rub shoulders with the French para-taekwondo team or even settle in France. Originally from the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan, this sports enthusiast was rather destined for a career in her home country, where she trained with the national para-taekwondo team.
Despite the difficulties related to her gender and the acceptance of her disability, her career seemed all mapped out. In 2016, she even won the African Para-taekwondo Championships, becoming the first Afghan woman with a disability to win an international medal in a sporting discipline. A performance that allowed her to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021. “One of my dreams was becoming a reality… But that was without counting on the Taliban, who took power on August 15, 2021. Never forget this date, because it marks the end of freedom for all Afghan girls and women,” she recalls, moved, to L’Express.
“It was chaos”
The Taliban regime, which imposes a strict vision of Sunni Islam in the country, prohibits women from accessing education, from doing most jobs, from traveling without a male chaperone, from going to many public places such as parks, gardens or gymnasiums, or from practicing a sporting activity. For Zakia Khudadadi, like for hundreds of other athletes, the sentence fell quickly, in the summer of 2021. “My coach called me and told me: ‘It’s all over, the Taliban have taken Kabul.’ I was shocked, in tears. But I immediately told myself that I would not let it happen,” she recalls.
From the capital, where she was training hard for the Tokyo Games, the young woman took refuge with relatives, then launched a video appeal for help, which she sent to the Reuters news agency. “I am a woman, a member of the Afghan National Paralympic Committee for para-taekwondo. I am currently imprisoned inside this apartment, without the possibility of going out, of training, of knowing how my relatives are doing or of checking that I am not excluded from the competition. […] I ask you to help me. Please, reach out to me, and help me,” she asks, facing the camera. Published on social networks, her testimony went viral. “Very quickly, I had responses from several countries, including France, which was the first to agree to take me in. But first of all, we had to succeed in getting me out of Afghanistan,” says the athlete.
On the road to Kabul airport, where thousands of civilians gather to try to escape the Taliban regime, Zakia Khudadadi remembers the fear that gripped her: “It was chaos. There were checkpoints Everywhere, patrols were circulating and checking everyone’s ID. They absolutely had to not understand that I was trying to leave. I risked my life, clearly.” Terrified of being spotted, the athlete abandoned all her belongings, and only kept her passport on her. On August 17, she finally took off from Kabul airport for Abu Dhabi, then Paris, and finally, Tokyo.
Less than two weeks after this escape, she took part in her first Paralympic Games in the fog. “It was a very strange time, I was extremely afraid for my family and friends who remained in Afghanistan. My whole life had just been turned upside down,” she says.
While the other athletes have been locked in their “bubble” of concentration for days, benefiting from the best training, physical care and mental preparation, Zakia Khudadi has just experienced an indescribable trauma. No matter: on September 2, 2021, she proudly presented herself at her first fight in the under 49 kilos, entering the tatami to the sound of the song Thunderstruckby AC/DC. The symbolism is immense. Facing the Uzbek Ziyodakhon Isakova, she finally lost 17-12, then lost her repechage fight against the Ukrainian Vika Marchuk. “It wasn’t the most important thing. My only goal was to participate in these Games as an Afghan. I thought of all the women and girls who had been forbidden to train, who were suddenly asked to be nothing more than wives and mothers. Everything I did was for them,” the young woman breathes.
“She never gets discouraged”
After her performance, several countries offered her asylum, including the United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia. But Zakia Khudadadi chose France, where she also managed to get some members of her family out. Housed at Insep, she has been training every day for four years to take part in the Paris Games.
“Physically, Zakia is a very explosive athlete: she has impressive speed in her movements, knows all the techniques, masters both guards. And mentally, we feel that she has the ability to surpass herself even when she is in pain,” emphasizes Haby Niaré, her coach at Insep. The former taekwondo world champion, silver medalist at the Rio Games, recognizes her student’s “impressive mental strength.”
“She always keeps going, perseveres. We often have this scenario in combat, where she is struggling, loses by eight or 10 points, then manages to turn the tide in one go. She will try until the end,” she explains. It was during a combat like this that Zakia Khudadadi won the qualifying tournament for the 2024 Paralympic Games, where she will compete under the banner of refugee athletes, having failed to obtain the administrative authorisations allowing her to represent the French team. “It is not always easy: we had some disappointments this year, where Zakia was unable to participate in certain training courses or competitions due to administrative problems, or due to a lack of agreements between her country of origin and the country where we were going to train,” explains Haby Niaré. “But she never gets discouraged, finds new solutions, catches up with other training sessions. As if all that gave her even more strength.”
Zakia Khudadadi does not seem to be one of those who are easily impressed. To protect her loved ones, she obviously prefers not to comment on the policies pursued by the Taliban. But her sporting performances are the greatest affront she can make to the regime: while the latter has simply banned Afghan women from playing sports, the young woman has won six international medals in two years, including the title of European champion in 2023. “On August 29 at 10 a.m., it will be my first fight for the Paris Games. I intend to come back with a beautiful medal. And I know what I’m fighting for,” she says before leaving for another photo shoot.
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