The first Afghan woman to seek Olympic gold in international competition in Paris since the Taliban took over
Paris: Zakia Khudadi has spent most of her life breaking glass ceilings. Or rather, hitting them with a sidekick.
The taekwondo Paralympian made history in Tokyo in 2021, becoming the first Afghan woman to compete in an international sporting event after the Taliban took back control of her country after US and NATO forces withdrew after a 20-year war.
Originally barred from competing after the rise of the Taliban, he was later expelled from Afghanistan and allowed to compete for his country after a request from the international community.
At the 2024 Paralympics, part of the wider Olympic Games in Paris, Khudadi said she was competing in the name of women in her country who have been gradually stripped of their rights over three years.
“It's difficult for me because I want to compete under my country's flag,” she said. But “life is restricted for all girls and women in Afghanistan. It's over. Today, I'm here to win a medal for them in Paris. I want to show strength to all women and girls in Afghanistan.
Khudaddi is competing for the refugee Paralympic team, while other athletes are seeking medals under the Afghan flag, such as Olympic sprinter Kimia Yusofi. Yusofi's parents fled during the previous Taliban regime and she was born in neighboring Iran. She said she wanted to represent her country, flaws and all, and be “the voice of Afghan girls.”
As for Khudadadi, she began practicing taekwondo at the age of 11, training secretly at a gym in her hometown of Herat because there were no other opportunities for women to practice the sport safely. Despite the closed culture around her, Khudadi said her family is open and inspires her to be active.
Emphasizing her struggle to compete in Afghanistan, she said, was her disability.
Despite having the “largest per capita population of people with disabilities in the world” due to the conflict, people with disabilities are often shunned and blocked from Afghan society, according to Human Rights Watch. Women are often disproportionately affected.
Khudadi, who was born without one arm, said that she spent her life hiding her arm. It was only when he started competing that things started to change.
“Before I started the sport, I protected myself a lot with my hands. But gradually … I started showing my hands, but only in the club. Only when competing,” she said.
When she started competing, she said she felt the stigma begin to melt away. Taekwondo once again became his path to freedom, and he gained attention when he won his first international medal in 2016.
That all changed five years later, when the Taliban made a dramatic ascent to power following the Biden administration's return from Afghanistan. While preparing to go to Tokyo, Khudadi was stuck in Kabul, the country's capital.
The International Paralympic Committee initially issued a statement saying the Afghan team would not participate in the 2021 Games “due to the ongoing serious situation in the country.” But in an attempt to compete, Khudadi released a video pleading with the international community for help.
“Please, I ask all of you, from women around the world, from organizations for the protection of women, from all government institutions, to not take away the rights of women citizens of Afghanistan so easily in the Paralympic movement,” she said. “I don't want my struggle to be in vain.”
He was flown to Tokyo to compete in 2021, leaving behind his family.
With this, she has become the first Afghan female Paralympian in almost two decades. In 2023, she won gold at the European Para Championships.
After her flight from Afghanistan, she settled in Paris, but said she longed for the openness and mix of cultures of the people who roamed the crowded streets of her country and Kabul.
“I hope one day I will be able to return to Kabul, Afghanistan, and live together in freedom and peace,” she said.
Thousands of miles away in Khuddadi's hometown of Herat, 38-year-old Shah Mohammad followed Khuddadi and other Afghan women athletes to Paris.
“We are happy for the Afghan women who went to the Olympics, but my wish is that one day women inside Afghanistan can participate in the Games and be the voice of women in the country,” said Mohammad.
That day is unlikely to happen soon.
The Taliban have cut women out of much of public life and barred girls from studying beyond the sixth grade, despite initially promising a more moderate regime in the form of draconian measures they implemented from 2021. Just in January, the United Nations said it now banned Afghan women from working, traveling and receiving health care if they were single or without a male parent.
Not only have they banned women's and girls' sports, they have threatened and harassed those who once played.
But even before the Taliban returned to power, women's sports were opposed by many in the country's deeply conservative society, seen as a violation of women's modesty and their role in society.
Still, previous, Western-backed governments had programs to encourage women's sports and school clubs, leagues and national teams.
For Khudadi, the IOC's refugee team helped him and other athletes who fled their countries continue their careers. The Paralympian trains long – with her eyes set on a gold medal in Paris – as she watches with deep dismay as her country's women progress, and Afghanistan once again slips out of the global spotlight.
A question arises in Khuddadi's mind: “Why has the world forgotten the Afghan woman?”
Still, for others like 43-year-old Mohammad Amin Sharifi, watching Khudadi and other Afghan Olympians, especially women, in Paris has been a source of pride for people like her in Afghanistan.
“Right now, we need to raise the voice of Afghan women in any way possible and the Olympics is the best place for that,” said Sharifi from Kabul. “We are happy and proud of the woman who represents the Afghan people.”
