Afghan women football players return to the field, while Afghan men are sent back to the Taliban
FIFA has decided to allow Afghan players to represent their country in international women’s competitions, despite the Taliban's failure to recognise them. At the same time, Afghan men are expelled from Europe under controversial agreements, while the country is still in the grips of a serious humanitarian crisis. Al-Qaeda backs the Taliban against the Pakistani government.
Kabul (AsiaNews) – Afghan women football (soccer) players who fled abroad after the Taliban took over again Afghanistan in 2021 will be able to play international matches representing their country and attempt to qualify for the next Olympics in Los Angeles thanks to a change in FIFA[*] regulations.
The international football association announced its decision yesterday following an amendment that gives the sports body's board the power to register a national team in exceptional circumstances. The change was too late for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
The Taliban regime, which has banned women from education, working in public, and travelling alone, has never recognised the women's football team, which until now has competed as a refugee team under the name Afghan Women United.
“This is a powerful and unprecedented step in world sport,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “By enabling Afghan women to compete for their country in official matches, we are turning principles into action.”
On a different note, European countries continue to expel Afghan refugees from their territory.
German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that, on Tuesday night, a plane chartered from Freebird Airline took off from Leipzig carrying 25 Afghans, all convicted of crimes (theft, drug trafficking, manslaughter, and rape). After a stopover in Trabzon, Turkey, the plane landed in Kabul where the men were handed over to Taliban authorities. German federal police officers then returned to Germany on the same aircraft.
Previously, in February, the German government expelled 20 Afghan men under an agreement signed with the Afghan government, which, according to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, is “a reliable basis for direct and permanent deportations to Afghanistan.”
The issue is controversial because the German government officially does not maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime due to its failure to respect human rights, particularly those of women.
The question is why the rights of men, even if they are offenders, can be violated. If an Afghan woman committed a crime in Germany, would she be deported to Afghanistan?
To avoid diplomatic entanglement, Austria has adopted a different approach, announcing that it had signed an agreement with Uzbekistan to facilitate the repatriation of Afghan refugees and streamline deportation procedures, the Austrian interior minister reported.
According to The European Conservative, Vienna is sending its interior and foreign ministers to Tashkent on 7 May to finalise the agreement, which very likely violates the principle of non-refoulement of the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the humanitarian situation remains dire. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently reported that some 57,000 people are in need of immediate assistance due to recent floods, which wiped out more than 7,000 homes and battered transport infrastructures, depriving several districts of basic services.
What is more, because of the country's long wars, at least 2.7 million people are at risk of contact with explosive devices, which could be carried away by flood waters, putting the lives of children in particular at risk, the agency noted.
According to other UN data, 90 per cent of Afghanistan's population lives below the poverty line, with more than 17 million people (out of a population of over 45 million) suffering from acute food insecurity.
On top of this, in late February, Pakistan bombed the country after accusing the Taliban of providing refuge and support to the group’s Pakistani branch, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). After a lull, clashes have resumed in recent days.
In response to the Pakistani attack, al-Qaeda, which has long had a presence in Afghanistan, as confirmed by several United Nations reports in recent years, released a statement yesterday announcing its support for the Taliban against the Pakistani government, pledging all its capabilities and energy. In it, the terror group calls on the people of Pakistan to join the fight against their country's leaders, which it claims to be subordinate to the United States and Israel.
This is the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 that al-Qaeda has explicitly called for "jihad" in support of them.
The Taliban have not commented on this statement and are unlikely to do so, since back in 2021 they denied that al-Qaeda was present in the country. They especially need to maintain the impression that Afghanistan is a safe country in the eyes of European governments, who can then continue to expel refugees towards it.
[*] Fédération Internationale de Football Association.
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