DURING their previous reign of terror, the Taliban found the stadium in Kabul useful for publicly cutting off the heads of people they did not approve of.
It is possible one of those heads belonged to the father of Nadia Nadim, who escaped Afghanistan with her mother and four sisters and now plays football for Paris Saint-Germain.
There was no forgiveness in the last regime.
Neither should we expect any from this one, so it was wise of the women’s international football squad to flee in a hurry while Kabul’s airport was still open to acts of such mercy.
They will be much, much safer hiding away in Australia although heaven help their families back home. Whichever heaven you might believe in.
According to their version of Sharia Islamic law, Taliban men are superior beings, allowed to behave to women in ways from which baboons would shy away.
They put up with football, just so long as it is played by men.
The country itself is in love with cricket although I doubt if an invitation will be forthcoming to their Test team to play at Lord’s any time soon.
Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is rated the finest spin bowler in the world and the likelihood is the 19-year-old will be welcomed home with fondest prayers.
He’s one of the lucky few from his country, male, relatively free and such a star he can earn a fortune playing cricket.
Zaki Anwari will never have a shot at fame.
An international footballer, he panicked when the West began to desert his country and was killed trying to escape by boarding a moving USAF rescue airplane.
His desperation was a condemnation of the religious fanatics who have usurped his country.
The treatment of other competitors was a pointer to a fear-riddled future.
The compulsory withdrawal of two female athletes from the Paralympic Games also spoke of utter disregard for human rights today.
Khalida Popal, who founded the women’s national soccer team, said: “All these years we have worked to raise the visibility of women and now I’m telling my women in Afghanistan to shut up and disappear.
“Their lives are in danger.”
‘TALIBAN LEADERS GENERALLY HATE SPORT’
Time and again sport has become a great leveller but Taliban leaders generally hate it.
Speaking from Copenhagen, where she now lives, Popal added: “Female players should take urgent steps to remove all trace of their sporting history.
“I’m calling them and telling them, take down their names, remove their identities, take down their photos for their safety.
“Even I’m telling them to burn or get rid of your national team uniform.
“That is painful for me, for someone as an activist who stood up and did everything possible to achieve and earn that identity as a women’s national team player.
“To earn that badge on the chest, to have the right to play and represent our country, how much we were proud.”
No doubt on sufferance, only a week ago the title decider in the Herat Premier Football League was held between Attack Energy Club and Herat Money Changers.
And games were allowed by the previous Taliban regime under their own rigorous terms.
These included wearing tracksuit bottoms or something similar.
‘DIFFERENT KIND OF DARKNESS’
A visiting Pakistani team were punished for wearing shorts by having their heads shaved.
They are likely to be more lenient with cricket and already there is talk of a T20 match against Pakistan next month.
But it will be a different kind of darkness that stops women’s play for who knows how long.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
