The Afghan Women Defying The Taliban To Be Olympians

When she steps out onto the cycling track at the Paris Olympics on 27 July, Yulduz Hashimi won't just be fulfilling a childhood dream.

- ARPAN RAI

She will also be carrying a flag for all women in Afghanistan who are denied the same sporting opportunities that have taken her to the Olympics.

Hashimi, 24, is one of three Afghan women athletes competing in the 2024 Games. The others are her younger sister Fariba Hashimi, 21, also a cyclist, and Kimia Yousofi, a sprinter who was Afghanistan’s flagbearer at the previous Olympics in Tokyo.

“From the first day of my cycling career, I dreamt that one day I would represent my country in the Olympics, and my dream has now come true. I am so happy now and excited that I am finally participating in the Games,” she tells The Independent.

They aren’t representing their homeland in the traditional sense, because the de facto Taliban government there doesn’t recognise them. Indeed, the Islamist regime doesn’t allow women to play sports at all publicly, or attend school. “Currently in Afghanistan, women’s sports have been stopped. When women’s sports aren’t practiced, how can they go on the national team?” Atal Mashwani, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s sports directorate, said earlier this month.