On Tuesday (14 September) night, female footballers from Afghanistan and their families crossed the Torkham border into Pakistan after the government provided emergency humanitarian visas to rescue them from their homeland following the Taliban takeover.
Footballers on the National junior girls’ team of Afghanistan faced threats from the Taliban due to their participation in sports. They were supposed to go to Qatar, where Afghan refugees are being housed in a site for the 2022 FIFA World Cup but were delayed after a terrorist strike at Kabul’s airport on August 26.
While most of the Afghan national women’s team flew abroad in the last week of August as part of an agreement with the Australian government, the young team was unable to board aircraft due to a lack of passports and other papers. They had been hiding since then to avoid the Taliban.
British-based NGO – Football for Peace in cooperation with the government and the Pakistan Football Federation of Ashfaq Hussain Shah worked together to bring the 32 footballers, a total of 115 people, including their families to Pakistan.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino visited Afghan refugees on his visit to Doha last week, but the world football body has been criticized for its failure to assist female footballers remaining in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, according to news, will allow female players to enter Pakistan if FIFA asked Pakistan for assistance.
Pakistan ambassador of Football for Peace Sardar Naveed Haider Khan said on Tuesday, “We launched these efforts a few weeks ago and we’re extremely thankful to the government and PFF president Ashfaq Hussain Shah and vice president Aamir Dogar for facilitating us.”
Ashfaq Hussain Shah said, “We are supporters of humanity.” He added, “When we learned about this, we immediately acted and tried our best to help them reach Pakistan as quickly as possible.”
Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting Fawad Hussain tweeted and said, “We welcome Afghanistan Women football team they arrived at Torkham Border from Afghanistan.”
