Afghan women train in secret to challenge gender-based violence through sport

My name is Friba Rezayee, and I am one of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic athletes. I represented Afghanistan at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in the sport of judo.

My participation brought back Afghanistan to the world sports arena. It wasn’t only an Olympic Game or a competition, it was a women’s rights, human rights movement: it was a sports revolution for women and girls.

I was also a special guest at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. I was invited by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

The problem: The Taliban has banned sports for all women and girls

Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, life has drastically changed for girls and women across the country.

One of the regime’s very first decrees was to ban all sports for women and girls, criminalising any participation in athletic activities and threatening harsh punishment for those who defied the rules. This makes Afghanistan the only country in the world where sport is illegal for girls and women.

These restrictions have shattered the dreams of countless young athletes. Many have been forced into hiding, while others have fled the country seeking asylum in countries such as Canada, Australia, the United States, Germany, etc. For those who remain, opportunities are extremely limited.

Since the collapse of the Afghanistan Republican regime, the GOAL program has been able to assist Afghan women and girls to continue to practice sports virtually. Effectively, from Canada, I and another judo instructor lead our online martial arts classes, thus offering young Afghan girls the chance to stay active, build confidence, and reclaim a sense of community and identity. 

These sessions are more than physical training, they are a form of empowerment, mental health support, and a powerful reminder to the participants that they are not forgotten.

The GOAL programme helps women address gender-based violence

One of the central objectives of the GOAL program is to actively address gender-based violence (GBV) which has been imposed by the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime by equipping participants with the tools to recognise, understand, and respond to it. 

Through structured training sessions, girls and young women not only develop physical strength and self-defense skills but also gain critical awareness about the social and psychological aspects of gender based violence and discrimination against female athletes. 

This holistic approach empowers them to stand up for themselves, advocate for their rights, and become sources of support and protection for others in their communities.

To engage in athlete activity is a powerful statement

To fully grasp the significance of the GOAL program, it is essential to underscore once more the dire Afghan context. 

Under Taliban rule, men and male coaches are given unchecked authority over the lives of their sisters, wives, and mothers, and the female athletes and or trainees.  This includes the power to forbid them from participating in sports. 

As a result, every time a girl or a woman dares to engage in athletic activity, she is making a powerful statement: she is fighting for her basic right to move, to express herself, and to exist in a public space. These acts of defiance are not just about sports - they are daily acts of resistance against gender-based violence and systemic oppression. 

Despite the risks, these girls and women continue to show extraordinary resilience, using sport as both a tool of empowerment and a form of protest.

GOAL provides sports leadership training to women

Our vision for Afghan women is to have access to high-quality education and to have the freedom to choose their career paths and lifestyles in sports.

Additionally, GOAL helps find sports leadership training opportunities for Afghan women in different sports and locations. The purpose of GOAL is to help underprivileged Afghan women to gain leadership in sports coaching roles and become instructors. The long-term idea is to allow them to open their own sports clubs or to become professional athletes, and Olympic gold medalists.

The first GOAL leadership and coaching class took place in January 2020 at Tokai University in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan with partnership of the Japanese Judo Federation and the Japanese domestic non-profit organization “JUDOs”. 

The two recipients of this GOAL training were our members Parwin Askari and Zakera Hosseini. The duration of the coaching class was 12 days from January 18th to January 31, 2020. After attending this coaching seminar led by Japan’s double Olympic gold medalist Judoka Kosai Inoue, Parwin and Zakera were readied to lead the girls’ dojos in Afghanistan.

Finally, the program also plays a key role in connecting the Afghan national judo team and other athletes with international donors and funding opportunities, helping to meet both the training and infrastructure needs to see equality. 

As part of this effort, GOAL facilitates English–Farsi translation to enable communication between Afghan athletes and international sports organisations. It also provides administrative support, including assistance with travel logistics, competition arrangements and more for Afghan women participating in international tournaments, ensuring that athletes can focus on their training and performance.

The outcomes have been great

The first and most significant behavioural change has been observed within families, followed by male coaches and their male counterparts during competitions in Afghanistan. 

Since the girls enrolled in the programme and began benefiting from GOAL’s professional coaching and training methods, they have become, generally, more empowered, able to stand up for themselves, and capable of engaging in conversations about gender equality at home.

It is important to understand that Afghan families are often traditional and religious, and initially not inclined to support sports for girls and women. However, when the girls show consistency, adopt healthy lifestyles, pursue an education in sports, and take on leadership roles, families tend to become more open.

The GOAL program organisers have witnessed real shifts in attitudes – from firm resistance to active support of their daughters’ participation in sports.

Additionally, when some of the athletes participated in professional judo training in Japan in 2019, they gained valuable knowledge about the sport and professional coaching.

Upon returning to Afghanistan, they were able to work as coaches or instructors. This not only provided them with an income but also helped foster greater respect and equality within their households, because having a source of income gives women more agency and recognition.

Successes

The GOAL program has actively contributed to advancing gender equality by supporting a number of athletes from Afghanistan. Two examples were members of the Afghan women’s national judo team who trained regularly under the previous Republican government.

One of the judo athletes, Roya recently competed in a major judo competition in Canada and got a silver medal. However, when the Taliban regained power, they and their teammates were immediately barred from accessing the sports centres as all sports facilities were closed to women across the country.

Challenges remain

Despite these efforts, major challenges remain. Firstly, the entire Afghan National Olympic Committee (NOC) is now under Taliban control, and many of its male members have aligned themselves with the regime. This means that all national sports federations are effectively governed by Taliban authorities. Their leadership doesn’t and won’t allow women and girls to play sports.

Another persistent and significant challenge is the online harassment of female athletes by men in coaching positions –both within and beyond Afghanistan.

Often, they [these men] want to continue to reproduce the extreme patriarchal practices on Afghan women and girls remotely.

This means that athletes cannot travel without a male coach present, must share her personal life with the male coaches, must seek approval for her lifestyle – for example what to wear, who to hang out with, what to eat, where to eat, how much money to spend, have a boyfriend or not, having a haircut or not and much more. 

The male coaches become the gods in their lives. If a female athlete disobeys them, she will be threatened, excluded from training camps, WhatsApp group chats, competitions, discussions,  and she will be shunned by them.

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and TikTok are used to harass female athletes commonly. When we report the harassment, it doesn’t go anywhere.

The lack of representation of Afghan female athletes in Afghanistan and in exile is another recurrent challenge. The reality is that most often it is the men in coaching, athletic, and sports leadership roles who speak on behalf of Afghan women. 

They speak but also make decisions in their place - frequently without their consultation or involvement. Finally, limited funding for this type of initiative continues to pose a considerable challenge.

Call for action

• Recognise the Afghan female athletes outside of Afghanistan to participate and represent Afghanistan at sports competitions
• No more men’s only teams: it is illegal and should be illegal for men’s only teams to take part in sports competitions while there are Afghan female athletes ready to compete
• Work with the Afghan women’s grassroots organisation because we have the lived experience, and have the Afghan context

Watch Friba Rezayee's presentation

The presentation was part of the session 'Beyond the flag: Indigenous and refugee athletes in global sports'