Afghanistan’s first female Olympian calls for Games ban
STORY: REZAYEE: “You can't hide behind one person under one flag and a portrait and tell the world that everything is okay for Afghanistan.”
Friba Rezayee was the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics in 2004.
Appalled by the Taliban’s treatment of women since their return to power, she's now urging the International Olympic Committee – or IOC – to ban Afghanistan from the Paris Games.
"If the IOC allows them to enter the Olympics at the heart of Europe, in Paris in 2024, it's very dangerous for the people."
The IOC previously suspended Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee in 1999 and the country was barred from the 2000 Sydney Games.
Afghanistan was reinstated after the fall of the Taliban, allowing an 18-year-old Rezayee to compete in judo at the 2004 Athens Games.
At the time, she was convinced her pioneering role would help advance women’s rights.
“When I returned from the Athens Games, I stayed in Afghanistan and I wanted to stay in Afghanistan. And I continued my training because I saw the changes, the important changes."
Now, she says those hopes are crushed.
"I never dreamed in my wildest dreams that all our achievements gains, rights, freedom will be taken away from us and will be halted just overnight in August of 2021."
The Taliban say they respect women's rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs.
Under their rule, girls' high schools have shut down and travel restrictions have been placed on women without a male guardian.
Access to parks and gyms is also restricted for women.
When asked to comment on Rezayee’s call for a ban, the IOC referred to a statement made in March by James Macleod, its Director of National Olympic Committee Relations and Olympic Solidarity.
“The IOC Executive Board did recognize the divergent views across the world relating to the suspension or not of the Afghan National Olympic Committee. But it also recognized the fact that the IOC doesn't believe that the isolation of the Afghan sporting community at this time is the right approach."
Rezayee left Afghanistan in 2011 and now lives in Canada.
She's since founded Women Leaders of Tomorrow – a non-profit that provides scholarships and education programs for Afghan women.
"To me, it feels like whatever I did to support women's rights, gender equality back in 2004, it is all undone by the IOC and by the Taliban and people who tolerate the Taliban."
