- Afghan women played their first international soccer tournament since fleeing the Taliban in 2021.
- Players, now living in exile, competed in the FIFA Unites Women’s Series in Morocco. The refugee team is known as Afghan Women United.
- FIFA recognized the team in an unprecedented move, defying the Taliban-controlled Afghan Football Federation.
- The team competing is seen as a significant act of defiance against the Taliban’s ban on women’s sports.
Afghan goaltender Fatima Yousufi stepped on the field at Berrechid Municipal Stadium in Morocco on Oct. 26 for a historic comeback more than four years in the making.
This wasn’t just a game. Not after enduring years of exile after fleeing Afghanistan amid the Taliban’s takeover. Not after an 11th-hour relocation of this tournament — the 2025 FIFA Unites Women’s Series was originally scheduled to be played in Dubai — because UAE visas for the Afghan team were not approved. Not after finally finding a voice with FIFA as a refugee team.
Yousufi said she and her teammates — known as Afghan Women United — felt more pressure than ever in an international tournament. It was a major step in their collective fight to be recognized as a national team. But Mursal Sadat, who plays centerback, said it was also about showcasing the strength of Afghan women and what they can achieve even under the most devastating circumstances.
‘Everyone was telling me, ‘We won’t get it,” Sadat told USA TODAY Sports about their fight for an Afghan team. ‘But I said, ‘We will still fight this fight, because it’s not about us, it’s about all the women in our country. It’s about being a voice for them.’
‘It’s a matter of gender equality … for every woman and girl around the world.’
Friendly matches for most national teams are an informal, preparatory part of the sporting calendar. But for the newly-established Afghan Women United team, the FIFA Unites Tournament Oct. 26-Nov. 1 in Morocco marked a moment of great geopolitical — and personal — significance. The four-team tournament allowed the Afghan players to contest their first games against international opposition since they fled their country in 2021, evading oppression from the Taliban, which banned women’s sports after returning to power after the withdrawal of American forces.
‘It has a very big meaning for us,” Yousufi said. ‘It’s going to be a big message … a powerful slap to the Taliban’s face, that we’re unstoppable.”
The round-robin tournament tested the mettle of the fledgling Afghan refugee team, which lost to Chad, 6-1, and Tunisia, 4-0, before posting an emphatic 7-0 victory in their final match against Libya.
But an overarching victory was secured before the first whistle, according to Yousufi, earned by virtue of the team’s mere existence.’There were a lot of sacrifices to just make it this far,’ Yousufi said. “I’m just so glad right now that [after] all our hard work … we have this result.”
Reflecting on Afghan Women United’s historic debut, captain Fatima Haidari said there was “a real mix of emotions” among her teammates.
‘I cried because we are back after many years, after all the moments that we suffered out of Afghanistan, far from our families … but we are still here,’ said Haidari, who lives in Italy. ‘We are fighting, and we had that spirit to be together and to strongly go ahead and just play the match.’
Four-year journey back to the pitch
The Afghan players have been in exile since August 2021. More than half of the team resettled in Australia, while others found safety in European countries.
High-profile female athletes were a major target of the Islamic fundamentalist movement as it swiftly set about introducing over 70 decrees across the country that restricted women’s rights to sport, education, employment and freedom of movement in public.
‘When the Taliban arrived, everything just vanished,’ Yousufi said. ‘The [football] dream … everything changed to survival mode.
“Every day, we were seeing the news that an athlete was killed by the Taliban, a politician was killed by the Taliban, a reporter was killed by the Taliban.”
Prominent sportswomen across the country were encouraged to destroy all evidence of their sporting identities.
‘I was supposed to burn my jersey and my medals … I couldn’t do it,” Yousufi said. ‘I started to dig a hole in the backyard, and I just … buried my memories, my sacrifices, my hard work and just trying to be a nobody.’
She thought at the time: ‘I’m just deleting myself. I did that to be safe, to just save my family, my teammates – everyone.”
Yousufi will never forget the four perilous days spent at Kabul Airport, waiting to escape via emergency visas arranged by FIFPRO and the Australian Government.
‘I myself got beaten by the Taliban during that time,’ she said. ‘I just escaped them, and I made my way to the gates. And my family got beaten by the Taliban. It was so bad.”
Evacuation enabled the safety of the players, but the ongoing threat of reprisal remained for family members left behind.
“There was a day that my mom called me in a hurry, and she told me that the Taliban was here,” Yousufi said. ‘They searched our house. They made such a big mess around. They even dug up the yards.
“My parents at that time; they were so scared.”
FIFA pathway restores Afghan team
Participation in international soccer tournaments is a politically charged area of bureaucracy.
While sovereignty of state-level decision makers — such as the Taliban-controlled Afghan Football Federation — is technically mandated, mounting criticism from the international community and targeted advocacy by the Sport and Rights Alliance and Human Rights Watch propelled FIFA to take unprecedented action in recognizing Afghan Women United.
This is the first time football’s world governing body has established a team in defiance of a national football association.
‘It was so important for us to keep this title and to have the team back again… to just not let the Taliban win this,” Yousufi said.
Speaking after the 4-0 loss to Tunisia, Sadat said, “It’s more than football for us.”
“We didn’t care about the result. We just cared about lifting up each other. We’ve got to be true leaders and show the girls in Afghanistan that despite the result, despite the winning or losing, you’re going to be a champion,’ said Sadat, who along with many of her teammates lives in Australia and plays professionally for Melbourne Victory FC AWT. The last three letters standing for Afghan Women’s Team, which has a partnership with the Australian club Melbourne Victory.
‘The AWT competes in Football Victoria’s competitive leagues where they have recently secured back-to-back promotions and will next season be in the Women’s State League 2,’ Melbourne Victory’s website reads. ‘In addition to supporting their sporting life, Melbourne Victory is committed to supporting players’ social and cultural lives. This involves investment in support structures providing health and wellbeing, education and employment.’
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was in attendance, congratulated Afghan Women United’s debut on the international stage as, “The beginning of a beautiful, beautiful story that you are writing for yourselves, for your families, for so many girls and women all over the world.”
Yousufi hopes the organization will continue to support the team’s ambitions. But for her, the most important thing is inspiring Afghan women who feel hopeless.
“I know it’s so hard to tell them, ‘Do not give up’ … [But] those girls in Afghanistan should dream, because those dreams [are] going to scare the Taliban,’ Yousufi said. ‘They should not give up on their dreams, because that’s what the Taliban wants.”
Ciaran O’Mahony is a freelance reporter based in the United Arab Emirates. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Age, The New Arab and The Diplomat. Bianca Roberts is a freelance reporter based in the United Arab Emirates. Her work has appeared in ABC News (Australia), The Sydney Morning Herald, The Diplomat and The New Arab.