For women and girls inAfghanistan, life has become one big No.
No school beyond the sixth grade.
No traveling without a male guardian.
Samira AsghariCourtesy of Samira Asghari
Death by stoning for moral crimes such as adultery.
In most places, women must cover themselves from head to toe if they leave the house.
And playingsportsis forbidden, too.
Three men, two of whom live in exile as well, round out the team.
They carry the former Afghanistan flag; Taliban officials are not allowed at the Games.
Youve had an interesting path to the Olympic world.
And then I started with aquatic swimming when I was five years old.
I did soccer, skateboarding, many sports.
Your parents encouraged you to pursue sports?Yes, yes.
I grew up with three boys, so I was always playing with them.
And my father, he used to be a coach in Taekwondo in Afghanistan.
Your family later returned to Afghanistan, after the Taliban had been toppled by U.S.-led forces.
I went from, I would say, from heaven to hell.
Imagine that youre in a battlefield: all destroyed buildings and no clean water.
Pollution, poverty, dry weather, no trees, nothing.
Not even one single swimming pool.
They would harass us.
Its a shock for the population, but you should normalize it.
I started biking on a dusty street, not on the main road, but on my home street.
As an individual, I started advocating this way.
Islam says that the right for education is for men and women.
Its not about religion, its about the norm that you create in your society.
People establish the norm.
I wanted as an individual to normalize something else, which is sport and education.
I played basketball until the Taliban came in 2021.
Then I heard about thepeople fallingfrom the wings of the plane, trying toescape the country.
I couldnt believe it; I thought it was a joke.
But then I saw the video and I was so sad.
I said that I should do something because Im safe.
How about my teammates, who were like my sisters?
We grew up together.
I started helping the Equality League and other international organizations to evacuate female athletes.
I was working, working, working all the time.
I also had to perform as an IOC member, which is a great responsibility.
Im still suffering from trauma that I was facing.
And Im sure a lot still going on in my brain is because we are still struggling with Taliban.
You see that all countries are promoting sport, and then I see my country.
Olympic teams must include both women and men.
Then they give the rosters to theNational Olympic Committees.
Now we have the biggest delegation of Afghan athletes ever three female and three male.
We also have five Afghans who are competing on the Refugee Olympic Team.
