The decisive moment was in 2011, when gunmen started firing in Kabul Khalida Popalin car.
Bullets flew through the windows, but Popal miraculously survived unscathed. He understood that the next time would probably be different.
The soccer player had received countless death threats from the Taliban and people who did not like the strong positions of the woman in her twenties. Against the wishes of religious conservatives, Popal encouraged the country’s women to train and play sports.
– Sports in Afghanistan is not just a competition or a game, as it is in Western countries. For me, sport was an opportunity to give Afghan women strength, Popal tells Urheilu.
In 2007, Popal was founding the Afghanistan women’s national football team. Afraid of angry reactions, the players secretly trained on a helipad at a NATO base and played international matches abroad.
In 2010, the national team and NATO soldiers played a friendly match in Kabul. After the game, captain Popal criticized the extremist Taliban in front of the media.
The consequences were severe.
– I constantly received phone calls and messages threatening to kill me. I was followed and attacked. I couldn’t leave my house anywhere.
Popali’s relatives also got their share. His his father and brother were abused brutally. The attackers said the reason was that the men of the family had not kept Popal away from the football field.
– The problem wasn’t just that I was working with football. I spoke publicly about society’s grievances: corruption, the use of power that oppresses women, and sexual violence. Many could not stand that a young woman used her position like that.
Popal would not have wanted to leave his homeland and family. In the end, he had no choice.
– The armed attack was the last straw. Leaving was the hardest decision of my life, but staying would have meant death or imprisonment. I would have lost my voice and the meaning of my work.
Tough refugee time
Popal fled through India to Europe. He changed his whereabouts and phone number, but the threats also reached him abroad.
Sportswear manufacturer Hummel, the sponsor of the Afghan women’s national team, helped Popali apply for asylum in Denmark. There he lived for a year in a refugee center surrounded by barbed wire fences.
Loneliness and experienced traumas drove Popali into severe depression, from which he survived with the help of therapy and medication.
– Refugee centers can be really unsafe places for women. Safety measures are lacking, people have a lot of mental health problems… I faced it all completely alone. I didn’t know who I was anymore, Popal recalls.
The hellish period helped him to be sure of his mission in life.
– People who have experienced hardships need a community to belong to. I wanted to help refugee women so that no one would experience the same hopelessness as me.
During his first years in Denmark, Popal helped women playing in Afghanistan from abroad and gave soccer training to refugees. In 2014, she founded an organization called Girl Power, which organizes sports and study activities for girls and women in difficult situations.
The tireless work has been quoted widely around the world. Popal has been remembered with numerous human rights and sports promotion awards, such as the prestigious Lantos award and recognition from the international football players’ association FIFPro.
On Thursday, Popali’s merits were noted in Finland, when the Liikkukaa and Rasmus organizations awarded him in Helsinki for his work for equality.
The rise of the Taliban
Popal has created impressive international networks over the years. They became a vital need in the summer of 2021, when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan after 20 years.
Popal, who had encouraged the girls and women of his country to exercise, now told them to burn their jerseys and destroy all traces of their sports hobby.
Numerous female athletes fled the country. Those who couldn’t get out prayed the Taliban wouldn’t find out about their athletic background.
Popal was flooded with cries for help. She toiled day and night to get the women’s national soccer team to escape to Australia.
An even bigger challenge was getting one of the girls’ national teams to safety. The team hid in an abandoned house from Taliban fighters until they got temporary visas to Pakistan.
Popal contacted all the parties he knew: organizations, football players, members of the International Football Association, lawyers… The list was endless, but the contacts produced results.
The British club Leeds United promised to take the team and their family members into their care. The New York human rights organization Tzedek, which organized the escape, informed Popal that the reality TV star Kim Kardashian would pay for the team’s flights to England.
Popal says that mostly good things are said about young players these days. Some have received study scholarships, some have contracts with English clubs. Such stories make Popal endure extremely demanding work.
– When I see hope in the eyes of young girls or hear that they are finding a direction in their lives, I become extremely happy. That’s the purpose of my life.
“Fifa’s actions are sad”
Popal has experienced more in his 36-year-old life than many people do in their entire lifetime. Still, he feels his mission is only just beginning.
The soccer influencer’s next goal is to see the Afghanistan women’s national team in international tournaments. The team currently lives in exile in Melbourne, Australia, where the players train under the guidance of local coaches.
The current Taliban regime and the Afghanistan Football Association it leads do not recognize the women’s national team, so the team cannot represent their country anymore, according to the International Football Association Fifa.
According to Popal, this is a glaring flaw.
– The team, which is now in Australia, played international matches a couple of years ago. Now, the right to do so has been taken away from the players, because the terrorist group that has taken over the country has banned women from all sports. Fifa has washed its hands of the matter.
Popal isn’t going to let it go. Her organization has drawn up a petition calling for the recognition of the Afghan women’s national team. It has been signed by more than 180,000 people.
Many world-famous names, such as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Malala Yousafzai have demanded action from Fifa.
– We could take care of all the practical arrangements for the national team. We just need permission from the umbrella organization to play, but it hasn’t come, says Popal.
– Fifa’s actions are sad in so many ways. We hear all the time beautiful speeches about how women’s sports are going to be promoted, but actions are lacking. Afghanistan is an example of that.