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Reuters

Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, has been appalled by the treatment of women since the resurgence of the Taliban and is now campaigning for the country to be kept out of the Paris Games.
Rezayee, a judoka who competed at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s human rights record. She has argued that under a such ban, Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
“Given tons and tons of evidence about the Taliban, about their brutal treatment of women and children, they are very dangerous,” Rezayee, who now lives in Vancouver, said.
“If the IOC allows them to enter the Olympics at the heart of Europe, in Paris in 2024, it’s very dangerous for the people.”
Afghan refugees in India rue missed chances for women amid Taliban crackdown
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, declined to comment.
The Taliban – who say they respect women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs – have closed girls’ high schools and placed travel restrictions on women without a male guardian and restricted access to parks and gyms.
Asked to comment on Rezayee’s call, the IOC referred to a statement made last month by James Macleod, its director of National Olympic Committee Relations and Olympic Solidarity.
Macleod said at the time the IOC was in dialogue with Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) and sport authorities “with the aim to reverse the current restrictions on access to sport for women and young girls in Afghanistan”.
He said that although the IOC acknowledged different views on whether Afghanistan’s NOC should be suspended, it “doesn’t believe that isolation of the Afghan sporting community at this time is the right approach”.

Separately, the IOC said athletes needed a refugee status confirmed by the United Nations refugee agency to be eligible for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
Rezayee was 18 when she stepped onto the mat in Athens in a historic moment for her country.
She was convinced her pioneering role would help advance women’s rights.
“I actually believed that we would only progress from here,” she said.
“When I returned from Athens, I stayed in Afghanistan and I wanted to stay in Afghanistan. I continued my training because I saw the important changes it was making in every single girl’s life.”
But her hopes of seeing her countrywomen gain more rights were crushed when the Taliban seized power in August 2021.
“It feels like whatever I did to support women’s rights and gender equality back in 2004, it has been all undone by the IOC and by the Taliban and people who tolerate the Taliban,” Rezayee said.


In February, a United Nations expert described the Taliban’s disrespect for the rights of women and girls as “unparalleled in the world”, and said their takeover had “exacerbated a high prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls”.
The IOC suspended Afghanistan’s NOC in 1999, and the country was barred from the 2000 Sydney Games. Afghanistan was reinstated after the fall of the Taliban, in time for Rezayee to compete in Athens.
Rezayee, who left Afghanistan in 2011 and settled in Canada, founded Women Leaders of Tomorrow, a non-profit that provides scholarships and education programmes for Afghan women, including athletes.
The 38-year-old has received threats for her activism.
“I believe that my principles and the principles of human rights, women’s rights and women’s dignity are stronger than men with guns,” she said.


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Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s first female Olympian urges Paris Games ban for country over Taliban’s rights record

Seen through the eye grid of a burqa, women walk through a market in Kabul. The Taliban – who say they respect women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs – have closed girls’ high schools and placed travel restrictions on women without a male guardian and restricted access to parks and gyms. Photo: AP

A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations in Kabul. In February, a United Nations expert described the Taliban’s disrespect for the rights of women and girls as “unparalleled in the world”. Photo: AP

In Afghanistan, women become breadwinners selling handmade products to make ends meet

A woman paints cups at the Herat centre of non-profit Women’s Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA) in Afghanistan. Photo: Handout

Women learn to embroider at the Herat centre of non-profit Women’s Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA) in Afghanistan. Photo: Handout

A woman embroiders at the Herat centre of non-profit Women’s Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA) in Afghanistan. Photo: Handout

An Afghan woman weaves a carpet in central Afghanistan. Photo: Shutterstock 

A woman learns to embroider at the Herat centre of non-profit Women’s Activities and Social Services Association (WASSA) in Afghanistan. Photo: Handout

Women tailors at Zainab Mohammadi’s shop in Afghanistan. Photo: Handout

Zarghoona Ibrahami at her tailoring shop in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Handout

Afghan women in Fayzabad, Badakhshan province, on March 21. Photo: AFP

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A combination of pictures shows four Tajik men suspected by Moscow of taking part in the March 22 attack, claimed by Isis, on a concert hall that killed 137 people. Photo AFP

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Security officials inspect the wreckage of a vehicle carrying Chinese nationals that plunged into a ravine off the Karakoram Highway after a suicide attack on March 26. Photo: AFP

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Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari (left), army officers and others attend the funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Syed Kashif Ali and Captain Muhammad Ahmed Badar, who were killed in an attack on a military post in North Waziristan district on Saturday. Photo: Handout via Reuters

Pakistan’s Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir (right) and Pakistans President Asif Ali Zardari carry the coffin of captain Muhammad Ahmed Badar, who was killed along with other soldiers in a militant attack in North Waziristan district, during the funeral ceremony in Rawalpindi. Photo: Handout via AFP

A Pakistani security official checks people and vehicles at a checkpoint in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Taliban security personnel sit along a street in Faryab province in Afghanistan on March 10. Photo: AFP

A Pakistani security official stands guard at a checkpoint in Peshawar on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Afghan refugees in India rue missed opportunities for women amid Taliban crackdown: ‘no education, no jobs’

Afghan women walk along a street at a market in the Fayzabad district of Badakhshan province on December 12. Photo: AFP

Afghan burqa-clad women sit as they wait to receive aid from the World Food Programme organisation in Pul-i-Alam, Afghanistan, on January 7. Photo: AFP

Afghan women gather to receive winter relief goods in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on December 28. Photo: EPA-EFE

Afghan children at a school in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Monday. The Taliban has steadily backtracked from initial promises that its new regime would allow women to be educated. Photo: EPA-EFE

Afghan women sew clothes at a tailor shop in the Fayzabad district of Badakhshan province on December 13. Photo: AFP

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Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, said Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team
The judoka and non-profit founder left Afghanistan in 2011 and settled in Canada, and has received threats for her activism


Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, said Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.


Afghanistan’s first female Olympian urges Paris Games ban for country over Taliban’s rights record

Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, said Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team The judoka and non-profit founder left Afghanistan in 2011 and settled in Canada, and has received threats for her activism

Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, said Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team

The judoka and non-profit founder left Afghanistan in 2011 and settled in Canada, and has received threats for her activism