With foreign governments wanting their citizens first, they provide little hope to the Afghan people whom many feel owe protection to help them in the 20-year conflict.
“I just want my phone to be out so I can feel freedom in my brain, but I can’t. I’ve been stuck with my phone for the last few weeks, watching the country collapse, watching our enemies,” he adds.
“It’s traumatic for me”
This is not the first memory Popal has of his country threatened by foreign invasion and guerrilla warfare groups.
In 1989, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, after invading and occupying the country for ten years.
Seven years later, when Popal was nine years old, the newly formed Taliban seized Kabul and ruled Afghanistan for the next decade.
“It ‘s traumatic for me and […] my generation, “he says.” Our childhood repeats itself and history repeats itself. “
During his rule, the Taliban declared the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, imposing strict laws on women: forced head-to-toe coverage, a ban on schooling or work outside the home, and a ban on traveling alone.
“It was a very dark and frightening time. I remember my childhood at the age of eight, nine, when the Taliban took control of the country, when they started. […] to kill […] and put people in jail, ”Popal says.
She says that because the Taliban had beaten her family (some “shot dead”), they would live in fear, “being so scared, sitting at home” and “waiting for the door to be knocked at any moment” and they will be imprisoned. ”
“I remember asking the questions because I had as many questions about her as any other child, without understanding […] politics. Asking a lot of questions, “Dad, why don’t they let me go to school?” How about if I want to […] play football outside, if I want to go meet my friends on the street? Because? Why is my mother not allowed to go to work? Popal tells Davies.
In the shadow of the Taliban
“We never prepared,” she says. “The whole Afghan community, everyone is amazed.
“Of course the Taliban have done that […] it always existed. They have been fighting around borders for so long, in rural Afghanistan. There was always a threat. “
When Popal was 16 a few years later, he began playing football in the shadow of the Taliban, who had banned women from playing sports or going to stadiums.
However, as Popal continued to speak, her global presence grew, as did threats against her.
In 2010, he decided to leave Kabul, heading to Pakistan and India, before finally finding asylum in Denmark.
“We had to escape,” she says. “I remember going in this terrifying and dangerous way […] to a safe place to seek protection and live as a refugee in Pakistan “.
“Our players are totally helpless”
Since then, Popal has continued to use sport as a platform for activism, launching the Girl Power Organization in 2014 to support refugees and migrants, and advocating for women’s rights in multiple conferences for organizations. such as FIFA, UEFA and the United Nations.
“We have made so many sacrifices in the last twenty years of our lives […] to achieve this collective, the pride of representing our country, the property of representing the national team of Afghanistan, ”he says.
“We used football […] defend our right as women […] but also for being the voice of the voiceless sisters who still lived under the Taliban regime, “Popal adds.” We were following the news, how they were stoned, how they were beaten, how they were beaten to death. “
“We stood up. We said that no matter if you shut up our sister, no matter how many of us are killed, we will be together. We are stronger. We will not give up because we had confidence.”
It now seems that Popal’s pride in representing Afghanistan on the world stage is nothing more than a fading memory.
Instead, her mind is occupied with the thought of footballers still trapped in Afghanistan.
“Our players are totally helpless,” Popal says. “We really struggled so much to earn our name […] on the shirt and the insignia on the chest and to wear the uniform of the national team and to represent our country at international level “.
“What hurts me the most is that I’ve been calling them for the last few days and I’m telling them to burn your uniform, to try to take everything you have out of the national team so that they don’t identify themselves if they come to your house. social media, try to shut up, try to hide your identity, remove your identity “, he adds.
“They must not be forgotten like this”
For Popal, one of the biggest emotional setbacks of recent decades has been entering the new millennium “with many high hopes for the future,” only to end up feeling sidelined by the global community.
“I was a teenager at the time and my generation and the new generation went out of their way to be actively involved […] the construction of the country […] the community, society, and also thanking, proving to the international committee, that your time is not wasted in our country, ”he says.
“Everything was forgotten,” Popal continues. “The international community […] he entered our country with words, with big phrases, words that defend the right of Afghan women, we will not let Afghan women live in the dark of the Taliban again. “
“We have done everything to be part of the growth and progress to also represent the new image of Afghanistan […] of the strong woman of Afghanistan, but now of the world [has] he has forgotten us.
“Think about all the individuals I’ve been working with: I know them, my friends, my family members and all these amazing women who have been a part of growth and progress. [the] enemy and without any protection “.
Despite his emotional torment, Popal remains true to his country and to the promise of a better tomorrow.
“My message to all […] individually, for organizations and governments, is that you just don’t forget the women of Afghanistan, they haven’t done anything wrong and they shouldn’t be forgotten like that, and they need support, they need protection, ”she says.
“Please be their voices, be the voice of the voiceless and helpless women of the country.”