Playing football may be a normality for men and women in most countries in the world, but not in Afghanistan where girls are prohibited from practising any sport. Khalida Popal, the former women’s national team captain, told Valhmor Camilleri how she put her life at risk to help Afghan girls go against the Taliban regime and start playing the Beautiful Game…

Khalida Popal has been fighting all her life to see Afghan women being given very ‘basic human rights’ such as going out to play football with their friends across the streets of Kabul.

Women living in a country like Afghanistan have to fight for very basic fundamental human rights, such as education, playing sport, and being given access to any social activities in their own towns and cities. It’s no coincidence that the United Nations has described Afghanistan recently as one of the most dangerous countries for women.

“It was not easy to grow up in a dangerous country like Afghanistan where you are told every time you cannot do this because you are a girl or you cannot go to a park because you are a woman," she said.

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