Afghan athletes face formidable hurdles under Taliban rule, particularly women, who are denied the chance to compete or even enter a gym. But when the Olympics open in Paris next month, Afghanistan will be represented by a team that epitomizes equality and global resistance to the Taliban's disregard for women's rights.
Afghanistan will field a six-member Olympic team that will consist of three women and three men, all chosen by the exiled Afghan National Olympic Committee (NOC). The team has the full support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which believes a gender-balanced team will serve as a positive example to the world.
The Taliban, which remains internationally isolated and whose unrecognized rule of Afghanistan has been marked by human rights abuses, has no stake in the team or the selection process.
Representatives of the Taliban and its authoritative bodies were denied accreditation for the Olympics and will not be represented in any way during the games that open on July 26.
The hard-line Islamist group's ban on women's sports is part of its raft of infamous restrictions that deprive Afghan women and girls of the opportunity to pursue education, employment, mobility, and deny them any prominent role in government or society.
In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, women must be accompanied by a male chaperone even to travel outside their homes, and are barred from competitions or even working out in public gyms.
But in Paris, the athletes representing Afghanistan will be breaking taboos and restrictions. The team was selected with the goal of showcasing gender equality, and features the same number of women and men.
Kimia Yousefi, Afghanistan's fastest woman and soon to be a three-time Olympian, will be looking to best the Afghan national record of 13.29 seconds she set in the 100 meters in Tokyo. She served as the flag-bearer for Afghanistan nearly three years ago in those COVID-delayed games, which wrapped up just days before the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021.
Yousefi will be joined by the Hashemi sisters, Fariba and her older sibling Yulduz, road cyclists who are on track to be the first-ever -- male or female -- to represent Afghanistan in cycling at the Olympics.
Afghanistan's fastest runner, Shah Mahmud Noorzai (center), hopes to be a record-setter in Paris.
Swimmer Fahim Anwari is among those who will be competing for Afghanistan under the anthem as well as the black, red, and green flag of the former Afghan republic ousted by the Taliban.
The tumultuous political changes in the Olympian's homeland since he represented Afghanistan in Tokyo have upturned his life and those of his compatriots.
Limited Resources
After the Taliban’s seizure of power, Anwari fled to Germany, where he has trained with limited resources and continues to represent Afghanistan in international swimming competitions.
“Problems and challenges in exile severely disrupted my practice,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “But I am doing my best to pursue my goals.”
Afghanistan's fastest man, sprinter Shah Mahmud Noorzai, will be competing in the 100 meters.
“I have trained well for the Paris games,” Noorzai, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
Noorzai fled to neighboring Iran after the Taliban rolled into Kabul. With the help of the IOC, he trained with Iranian athletes.
Noorzai said he is looking forward to beating the national record he set in Tokyo in the 100 meters, which he ran in 10.23 seconds.
“I am proud to be the fastest man in Afghanistan,” he said. “To be the fastest man in Afghanistan’s history.”
Afghanistan's national team duirng the opening ceremony at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Yunas Popalzai, the exiled secretary-general of the Afghan NOC, told Radio Azadi that in addition to Noorzai and Anwari, the judoka Mohmmad Samim will represent Afghanistan.
Akhtari said five of the Team Afghanistan athletes were based outside their home country.
“As all women’s sports are suspended in Afghanistan, [the female athletes] who were put forward were not introduced from inside the country,” he told the AFP news agency this month.
Only Samim is believed to be based in Afghanistan itself.
The objective from the beginning was to choose a balanced team of men and women to represent Afghanistan.
“We made it clear we wanted a gender-equal team,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said earlier this month. “That was the demand, and that is what we achieved.”
“The clear idea is we want to get Afghan athletes and a gender-based team in Paris,” he said. “Because of the demonstration that it gives to the world, at home in Afghanistan, and also to the rest of the world.”
The IOC provides material and financial support for the Afghan athletes competing in the biggest global sports competition.
Adams stressed that the IOC is not allowing Taliban officials to participate in the Olympics and only recognizes the NOC's right to represent Afghan athletes.
"There will be no place for Afghan authorities, the Taliban," Adams said. "No representative of the de facto authorities, the Taliban government, will be accredited."
At least three Afghan men and two women will also compete for the IOC's Refugee Olympic Team, which represents 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.
Manizha Talash, a breakdancer who was born in Kabul, discovered the sport on social media, and now lives in Spain, is among those who will compete with the 36-member team.
The Refugee Olympic Team will be led in Paris by Masomah Ali Zada, an Afghan road cyclist who competed for the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo in 2021.
Nigara Shaheen, a judoka in the 70-kilogram category, grew up as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan and practiced martial arts as a family tradition. She has lived and trained in Canada since 2022 and was also named on the Refugee Olympic Team.
Three male Afghans will be on the Refugee Olympic Team-- Amir Ansari in road cycling, Arab Sibghatullah in judo, and Farzad Mansouri in taekwondo.
Afghanistan first participated in the Olympics in 1936, but has only won two medals.
Rohullah Nikpah won men’s taekwondo medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and in the 2012 games in London.