Afghan women footballers return to pitch in Australia

KABUL (Pajhwok): Afghanistan’s women footballers on Sunday competed in a local league match in Australia for the first time since fleeing the country after last year’s regime change, according to a media report.

The result was a scoreless draw after an Afghan goal was disallowed for being offside in a lower league amateur match in the eastern state of Victoria.

But for the Afghan women, it was a powerful, symbolic victory as they returned to the pitch together after leaving their homeland to rebuild their lives in Australia.

“We still continue our fight and our combat just to play for the Afghanistan people,” team captain Nilab told a foreign news agency, who did not give a family name so as to protect relatives living in Afghanistan.

“We fled the country but we are still thinking of our country and we are still working for our victory for our country.”

Australia helped dozens of Afghan national women’s team players and their relatives to escape when the Taliban swept back to power eight months ago.

nh/ma