In Spain, the Afghan basketball star fears the country he has left

BILBAO, Spain, August 22 (Reuters) – When he began a new life in Spain after escaping the chaos of Kabul, Nilofar Bayat said on Sunday that he could not live under the Taliban, fearing that he would reverse all the successes that Afghanistan has achieved the last 20 years.

The captain of the Afghan women’s wheelchair basketball team arrived in Madrid on Friday on a flight from Kabul with her husband Ramesh Naik Zai, 27, and more than 100 other refugees.

“I saw at the airport in (Kabul) how dangerous they are (the Taliban). I saw them shooting and beating. I was crying. My husband told me to be strong, that I will never leave you alone,” Bayat said. , 28, on Reuters.

“When I saw the Taliban I told (my husband) that I want to leave this country because I can’t live with these people.”

Bayat was offered the opportunity to play at the Bidaideak Bilbao BSR, a basketball team for wheelchair users in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, where the couple will live.

When he was two years old, his family home in Kabul was hit by a rocket, injuring his spinal cord. His brother was killed. Bayat’s husband was also injured by a mine.

“They (the Taliban) came and changed my life and (my husband’s) life. They put unstoppable pain on our lives. A permanent disability that we have to accept.”

Bayat, who was given a seat on the plane outside Kabul thanks to the efforts of the Spanish government and the Spanish Basketball Federation, fears the future of Afghanistan under the Taliban.

“They will destroy all the desires and achievements of the last twenty years,” Bayat said.

She said she feared that the role of women would diminish under the Taliban.

“Being a woman in the Taliban regime means nothing, don’t be part of society.”

When he began his new life, he said of his compatriots in Afghanistan, “We pray that they will be safe. Please do not give up.”

Report by Graham Keeley Additional report by Elena Rodriguez, Marco Trujillo, Vincent West Edited by Giles Elgood

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