Jarghunna Noori has always been a fighter, but the 22-year-old Taekwondo champion – who dreamed of representing Afghanistan At the Olympics – says she finally met her match.
“We feel really bad when we lose in a game,” he told AFP at his home in the western city of Herat.
“And now we are defeated by the Taliban.”
The Taliban’s all-male government has shut down the ministry of women’s affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety for enforcing religious doctrine during the radicals’ 1996-2001 term in power.
While they have not yet publicized a formal policy on women in sport, the Taliban have made comments that indicate serious participation would be impossible.
With women and girls already effectively banned from work and school, fear of retribution for practicing the sport is widespread.
“All our lives have been turned upside down,” said Nouri, who became a national academy star by winning the Afghan title in 2018 since joining her provincial team a decade ago.
“Every member of the national taekwondo team dreamed that one day we would make it to the Olympics and, in other countries, fly the Afghan flag at international competitions,” she said, surrounded by her medals and a gold trophy as the ‘best leader’.
“But now we are all forced to stay at home, and become more depressed with each passing day.”
Taekwondo grew in popularity in 2008 after local hero Rohullah Nikpai won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in Afghanistan.
Zakiya Khudadadi, 22, gave Afghans another reason to watch Korean martial arts while attending the Tokyo Paralympics last month.
– The game ‘Not necessary’ –
In Afghanistan, women have long faced open hostility for their participation in the sport and it is extremely rare for them to participate in rural areas.
Many women’s leagues in cities are still in their early stages.
About 130 girls and women aged 12-25 are members of a taekwondo gym in Herat, but they are not currently allowed to train and their ability to do so in the future looks bleak.
Last week, the country’s new sports chief Bashir Ahmed Rustamzai said the Taliban would allow about 400 sports – but declined to say whether women could participate in any of them.
Ahmadullah Wasik of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission also raised concerns this month, saying it was “not necessary” for women to play the sport.
But the regime is under pressure: Barring women from participating could stifle recognition and funding from international sporting bodies – including support for its popular cricket and football teams.
– Desperate for training –
For Nouri, a fourth-year physical education student at Kabul University, the Taliban’s harsh interpretation of Sharia law is personal.
Standing alongside seven other members of the National Taekwondo Academy, she said, “Every woman in Afghanistan has a dream to move forward and get to a better place in the future.”
“They all wanted to be role models … so that they could show the world how much progress we can make.
“We all acted, practiced and tried our best, but now it has come to nothing – all of it.”
Noori said that many young taekwondo athletes are now in hiding, and when they leave their homes, they cover themselves from head to toe in burqas.
The athlete is desperate to get back to training, he said, so that “ten years of hard work don’t go to waste”, but now feels he will be forced to leave Afghanistan.
“Anyone who lives in their country never wants to leave it,” she told AFP.
“But the conditions are such that we do not see the common ground that would allow us to progress; It doesn’t exist in the country.”
– ‘Help us’ –
Nouri called on the global sports community to help, because “if we raise our voice in Afghanistan, our voice will be cut off”.
“We ask all international, Olympic athletes and members of the Olympic Committee to help us so that we can get to a better place, even if it means moving to another country to continue our activities,” she said.
Another member of the national team, 22-year-old Zahra also felt “helpless”.
“Even men do not have all their freedom,” he said, adding that the Taliban were “the same Taliban of the past”.
“Just as men are being allowed to study, women should be allowed to do the same. They should not obstruct the way of girls and women.”
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