Key Points
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has joined a campaign supporting the Afghan women's football team.
- The team is calling for recognition from FIFA to participate in international tournaments.
- They have been in exile in Australia since the Taliban takeover and are barred from international competition.
Members of the Afghan women's football team since the Taliban takeover in their home country two years ago.
The team is unable to compete in international competitions, and players have instead watched the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup from the sidelines.
On Saturday, they were buoyed by a visit from Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai in support of a campaign for official recognition of the side by football's governing body.
Yousafzai, who travelled to Australia with her husband to watch the World Cup, is rooting for the Afghan women's team to come off the sidelines.
“It is time for FIFA to decide that they are not standing on the Taliban's side. It is time for FIFA to recognise that they are standing with the women of Afghanistan.”
Over 160 thousand people have signed a petition supporting the cause.
The Afghan players still wear their country's red kit, but now it bears the crest of Melbourne Victory, a club that has supported the team to play in Victoria's state league.
Team Director Khalida Popal said players' wishes to represent their country must be respected.
“People from around the world are standing with us. Amazing, fantastic people like Malala and Melbourne Victory (football club), and other people are standing with us," Popal said.
"We are hopeful. We are happy that we are not alone in this.”
FIFA says it does not have the right to officially recognise a team unless it is first recognised by the concerned Member Association.
Yousafzai said the rules should be changed.
“In the end what matters is not the rules and regulations. What matters is that the players are able to play the game," she said.
"So we have heard enough of the excuses of the rules and regulations.”
Team Captain Fatima Yousufi says for players, who fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took power two years ago, football is a vital remedy.
“We have been through a lot and we need time to heal. But the thing is football is our medicine," she said.
"Football is the medicine for our wounds, wounds of war, wounds of the situation of what happened in Afghanistan.”
Like Yousafzai the players have shown great resilience.
It's a quality they hope with help see them back on the world stage, playing the game they love.
