Afghan women’s football captain fears players will be killed

THE captain of the Afghan women’s football team has appealed to the sport’s governing body for help in evacuating her teammates, who she fears could be killed for playing the game.

Shabnam Mobarez, 25, made her plea to Fifa and the International Olympic

Committee in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. Now living in the United States, Ms Mobarez, described the fear engulfing women athletes. “All of them are currently hiding,” she said.

The Afghan women’s football team was formed by the country’s National Olympic Committee in 2007.

The Taliban had banned women from playing sport when they took over Afghanistan in 1996.

Ms Mobarez, who left Kabul for Copenhagen when she was seven, recalled the brutality of the Taliban.

“I remember my childhood being shattered,” she said. “They used to cut off thieves’ hands and then expose them in places where people could see.”