Afghan athletes’ plea to NZ
A group of Afghan sportswomen, with nowhere else to go, are calling on New Zealand to offer them safe haven.
When the Taliban seized power in August last year, they outlawed women’s sport and essentially erased 20 years of women’s empowerment. Almost overnight, those playing at the highest levels, and publicly advocating for women and girls in sport, went from celebrated role models to being persecuted by the extremist regime.
Now, a group of Afghan footballers and basketballers have written an open letter to Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford asking New Zealand to consider them for an emergency intake.
The group is made up of 140 female football and basketball players – mostly young women – who have represented Afghanistan nationally, along with coaches and relatives evacuated by Fifa.
These women have been stranded in Albania on temporary visas since October, after being evacuated via Qatar with the help of Fifa and the Canadian Government. They believed Canada was going to be their new home but Canada refused to supply resettlement visas for the women and their families. Eight months on, the women are desperate to find a new country to call home. Zahra (not her real name) spent years watching football on television before taking up the beautiful game.
She dreamed of making it on to the national team and representing her country abroad. At 22, she achieved that goal. Zahra is now one of 30 national footballers in Albania, looking to make a new life in another country. Like others who were evacuated in the mayhem after the Taliban takeover, Zahra had to leave behind her family (parents, six sisters and two brothers) and many of her team-mates.
In recent years, women’s football tournaments had been the target of bomb threats, and players and their families had been personally threatened with violence.
But the situation has deteriorated further since August. In some cases, women burnt their sports kit – destroying all evidence of their participation – to protect themselves and their families.
‘‘My message to the New Zealand Government or to the world is that we lost everything. The women lost everything that they achieved before,’’ Zahra said. ‘‘The only things that we now have are hope and the future.’’
Those advocating for the group of sportswomen say New Zealand seems like the perfect fit, given Aotearoa is hosting the 2023 Women’s Football World Cup, along with the country’s international reputation for empowering women.
Mara Gubuan, founder of non-profit organisation Equality League, said everyone claimed it was right, moral and humane to offer safe haven to those in distress. ‘‘But it is very simple: words and actions need to line up.’’
Gubuan, who has been working with the athletes to find them a permanent home, said New Zealand had the opportunity to set an example.
The more than 20 signatories to the open letter include Football Ferns legend Rebecca Smith; New Zealand footballer and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Ria Percival; New Zealand footballer and Glasgow City defender Meikayla Moore; and New Zealand Olympian Ben Sandford.
Other sportspeople from the United States and Afghanistan have joined the call, including International Olympic Committee member Samira Asghari.
The list of names also includes those from the international human rights community, non-government organisations and academics.
Golriz Ghahraman, the Green Party’s refugee and humanitarian issues spokesperson, said Aotearoa should prioritise resettling at-risk Afghan women.
The Taliban did not exclusively persecute women but they did target women ‘‘most zealously’’, she said.
Twyford’s office confirmed it had received the letter but the minister had not yet had the chance to consider the matter.
The associate immigration minister has the power to make discretionary decisions about individual refugee resettlement and immigration cases.