KABUL, Sept. 16 — Most mornings after prayers, Sanah, 25, joins several women from her neighborhood in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to walk along a main road before it fills with traffic, without jogging or getting too close to the many Taliban. checkpoints.
They train in secret, not to compete, but for health and peace of mind in a country where the Taliban government has banned women from playing sports.
“We can’t go near a Taliban checkpoint because they say, ‘Why are you out so early?’ where are you going Why do you have to exercise, you don’t have to, so don’t,” said Sanah, whose name has been changed — along with all the women interviewed by AFP — for fear of reprisals.
Taliban authorities have implemented a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, with women suffering restrictions that the UN has labeled “gender apartheid”.
In November 2022, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced that women were banned from parks and gyms because they did not follow a dress code that instructed them to cover themselves.
Gyms had previously provided time slots for women, and while some informal women-only fitness clubs still exist, they are rare and low-profile.
Sanah and one of her companions, middle-aged Latifah, strolled through the city’s large tree-lined parks.
The last time Latifah went to a park near her house, not long after they were permanently closed to women, she said she was forcibly taken away and cried again as she recalled the incident.
“The doctor told me to exercise more because I have high cholesterol and a fatty liver, but the Taliban don’t allow us to exercise or go to the gym or (freely) walk outside,” he said.
Sanah aspires to become a yoga teacher and guides the group through gentle aerobic exercise and meditation after the walk.
Pressing her thumb and forefinger to her knees in the yellow dawn light, far away on a balcony protected from prying eyes, Sanah says quietly, “Take a deep breath.”
In this photo taken on June 26, 2024, Afghan women walk along a road in Kabul early in the morning. – AFP image
Boxing in secret
Forced out of the gym, Rayan and some female boxers instead visit a friend’s home and use what little equipment they have to practice in a society that was once hostile to women but has now become draconian.
“We train less, but we never stopped,” said Rayan, 19, watching a video on his phone of him punching and hooking, a bittersweet reminder of the keen boxer he once was.
Pulling off her headscarf in a private garden in the hot Kabul, Bahar, a former competitive boxer, said the situation had left her and other Afghan women stressed, exhausted and low.
“But when we box, it puts everything away for a moment. Even if we train for just a few minutes, it makes a big difference,” said the 20-year-old, whose hands were still stained with henna from a recent wedding.
The husband does not know that he is still boxing.
Many female athletes fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took over.
Some still compete on the international stage, including the recent Paris Olympics, but they come from outside the country and under the flag of the overthrown republic.
Taliban rule is not officially recognized by any country.
“Sports for girls have been stopped in Afghanistan. If girls don’t play sports, how can they join the national team? said Atal Mashwani, a spokesman for the Taliban government’s sports directorate.
Afghan women train in secret, not for competition, but for health and peace of mind in a country where the Taliban government has banned women from playing sports. – AFP image
“Give Them Hope”
Banafsha, a black belt in the Chinese martial art of wushu, echoed others’ sentiments about Afghan women participating in the Olympics.
The Afghan team in Paris consisted of three men and three women, Afghan women also competed in the refugee team.
“I was happy that the women have not given up yet, but are committed to their goals,” he said.
“But I was also sad. Why can’t they go to the Olympics from their own country?
The former national competitor burned its form when the Taliban took over.
These days, she can barely leave the house and finds it hard to motivate herself to exercise, feeling “hopeless and heartbroken”.
Hasina Hussain Zada, who works at Free to Run, an organization that focuses on empowering women through sports, said that while there are a number of online exercise videos and classes, they are no substitute for in-person training, being part of a team or exercising outdoors. .
“We tell our participants to think about it like it’s the time of Covid,” said the 28-year-old, who fled to Canada after the Taliban took over.
She has been working since 2018 with a non-profit organization that still supports Afghan women to exercise indoors, albeit “carefully and secretly”.
“You don’t have to think about the Taliban, the rules… just think of it as if it was the time of Covid when everyone was doing exercises at home,” he said.
“We’re trying to change their mindset, we’re trying to give them hope.” — AFP
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