FIFA: Recognize, support Afghan women's football team in exile

View video webinar recording: Sport and Rights Alliance press conference report launch

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should act to stop the ongoing discrimination against Afghan women footballers living in exile and facilitate their return to international competition, the Sport & Rights Alliance said in a report released today.

In two days, the Afghanistan Women’s National Football Team (AWNT) will be absent from the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers draw, which feeds into qualification for the 2027 Women’s World Cup – marking the second World Cup-qualifying cycle from which the team has been excluded since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

"Though the Afghanistan Women’s National Team escaped the Taliban in 2021, the shadow of systematic gender discrimination continues to follow them across borders, denying them their rightful place on the international stage,” said Samira Hamidi, South Asia campaigner at Amnesty International. “Amnesty, along with the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and other civil society organizations, has called for the Taliban’s gender persecution to be investigated as crimes against humanity.”

The new Sport & Rights Alliance report, titled "'It’s not just a game. It's part of who I am': Afghan Women Footballers’ Fight for the Right to Play", details how the Afghan women’s team, a symbol of women's empowerment in post-Taliban Afghanistan, was specifically targeted for reprisals when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

“Right now, the game is at halftime, and the Taliban think they are winning,” said Khalida Popal, founder of the Afghanistan Women’s National Team and Girl Power Organization. “If FIFA would change its rules and let us play, we could show the world that Afghan women and girls belong in sport, in school and everywhere in society – and we will not be defeated.”

FIFA regulations currently require the team to receive recognition from the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Football Federation, which will not recognize a women’s football team due to the Taliban’s ban on women's sports. For more than three years, the Afghan women’s team players and their supporters have campaigned for FIFA to intervene and provide them with the official recognition and financial support denied to them by Afghanistan.

In response to a letter from the Sport & Rights Alliance requesting comment on the report, FIFA shared on 21 March that a plan has been developed to provide football opportunities for Afghan women both within and outside the country, but did not say whether they intend to officially recognize the AWNT or how specific funding would be allocated.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) did recognize an Afghan Olympic Committee in exile for the 2024 Paris Olympics, enabling Afghan women athletes to compete despite Taliban restrictions. Several UN experts called this move from the IOC a “welcome start,” but called on international and national sports bodies to do more to push back against the Taliban’s oppressive policies and “support female Afghan athletes wherever they are.”

For more information, please contact:

• For the Afghanistan Women’s National Team, in Copenhagen, Khalida Popal: +4531403299 [email protected]
• For Amnesty International, in London, Stephen Cockburn: [email protected]
• For Human Rights Watch, in New York City, Minky Worden: +1-917-497-0540; [email protected]
• For the Sport & Rights Alliance, in São Paulo, Andrea Florence: +55-11-98420-0025; [email protected]

 Quotes from the Report

“When we compete on the international stage, we show the Taliban that they are wrong and we are right.” - Maryam Karimyar, Afghanistan's U15 National Women's Football Team player

“Playing for my country is one of the ways I can stand up for the girls back in Afghanistan. My dream is to be reunited with my teammates from all over the world, to play with them again and bring back the football dreams we had when we lived back home.” - Fatima Foladi, U15 and U19 AWNT player

“Football means everything to me. It's not just a game; it's part of who I am. Playing football has given me strength and hope, especially during the hardest times of my life.” - Ahdia Haidari, AWNT player

“The story of the Afghanistan Women’s National Football Team was always one of a movement of equality for women and by women.” - Khalida Popal, founder of the AWNT