AFGHAN ATHLETES JOURNEY TO FREEDOM By Vincent Lyn

On 15 August 2021, the Taliban entered Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul and took control of the country. Since then, human rights violations against women and girls have mounted steadily. Despite initial promises that women would be allowed to exercise their rights within Sharia law — including the right to work and to study — the Taliban has systematically excluded women and girls from public life. Taliban’s return to ruthless power in Afghanistan has now put all females including the country’s female athletes. Now that Sharia Law has been enforced, imprisonment, torture, and executions of female athletes all throughout Afghanistan have become perilous whilst women have not only lost their freedom, sportswomen and activists are now fearing for their lives.

Women no longer hold cabinet positions in the de facto administration, which has also abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs — effectively eliminating women’s right to political participation. The Taliban has also banned girls from attending school past the sixth grade and barred women from working most jobs outside the home. Restrictions on women’s movement and bodies continue to escalate. In May, 2022 the Taliban decreed that women must cover their faces in public and instructed them to remain in their homes except in cases of necessity. Women are banned from traveling long distances without a male chaperone, and unchaperoned women are increasingly being denied access to essential services.

Twenty-one successful Afghan refugees comprising of both highly competitive cycling and MMA Athletes and their nuclear families making up thirty Afghan refugees were forced to flee Afghanistan at the latter part of 2021, in fear of their lives from the Taliban, after being threatened with torture and imprisonment due to their love of sport for which in extreme cases girls are being killed. Two female athletes were captured by the Taliban, one was sexually assaulted and killed found with her hands and feet bound and the other beheaded.

In late October 2021, a young female cyclist and volleyball player, Mahajbin Hakimi was beheaded for her love of sport. On January 13, 2022, the Taliban openly fired on vulnerable women in a car and shot a woman at a checkpoint. In November 2021, many young sports girls in Afghanistan were forced to go into hiding and to keep relocating, placing all, of their family members at risk. I have received many photos of tortured family members. These young sports girls were being hunted, detained, badly beaten, tortured, and in some cases killed by the Taliban, or accused of espionage with American “foreigners”, due to their known association with sport, noting that all Afghan women are forbidden to play sport under the distorted interpretation of Sharia law.

The refugee Afghan Athletes were in Pakistan on temporary visas, while waiting for a Charity Foundation to secure asylum on their behalf. Their visas expired on August 17, 2022, at which point the girls faced repatriation back to Afghanistan and consequently faced imprisonment, torture, and possible execution by the Taliban.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights its important to note that all attempts were made to reach out to the highest levels of the United Nations and any, and all state departments to assist with an urgent intervention to secure asylum in the United States or another country of stability that embraces women in sport. But to no avail, no one or any country would lift a finger to help! What is so disheartening and disgusting on so many levels is that if any country should’ve stepped up to the plate is the United States. We all remember President Joe Biden’s infamous last words when he ordered the troops out of Afghanistan, that he would not forget the Afghan people. That lasted about as long as the memo took to write. Yet again Afghan citizens like these young girls were abandoned and failed appallingly by the U.S government.

But, I’m a firm believer to never give up and against all odds to stay in the fight, turn over every stone until all options are exhausted. My foundation ‘We Can Save Children’ a non-profit organization based in the U.S working in rescue & recovery of women and children in conflict zones partnering with ‘Help Children Now’ a U.K registered charity that is run entirely by unpaid skilled volunteers whose mission is to support children’s mental well-being, physically and emotionally, as well as supporting children’s human rights to an education, globally. They scoured the globe trying to find a stable country that would allow them resettlement and political asylum. Countries like the United States, Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden and many others but every turn was met with the door being slammed in their faces. The Taliban’s intelligence network is very expansive and they were always close to hunting them down. We always had to be two steps ahead moving the Athletes from one safe house to another. With all this subterfuge used to keep them safe you would think that countries would step up but again we were spinning one’s wheels.

Finally, the U.K government stepped up to the plate and after extensive vetting by MI5 and Scotland Yard to check whether or not they had ties to the Taliban or any other known terrorist organization, they were given the green light and allowed resettlement in the U.K. They were flown from Islamabad, Pakistan on two separate charter flights to two undisclosed airports in England. They have now been in the U.K for three months trying to get adjusted to their new lives. It’s just the beginning of a new life and will not be easy, many having to learn to speak English, adjusting to a new cultural identity. Some of them will be given the opportunity to attend University in the U.K certainly a freedom that so many of their countrymen will unfortunately never be allowed. Also, in three years they will be issued British passports and then be able to secure passage for their families to the U.K as well.

Since that final day of withdrawal from Afghanistan of American troops on August 31, 2021, the world’s humanitarian target of promised asylum for Afghan refugees has fallen short of global targets. Two-thirds of the country’s population will need humanitarian assistance in 2023. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) estimates that a record 28.3 million people will need humanitarian and protection assistance in 2023 (out of which 13 million are children), up from 24.4 million in 2022 and 18.4 million in 2021. Close to 20 million people — 45% of the Afghan population — suffer from hunger, and nearly 6 million survive on less than 1 meal per day. More than 5.7 million Afghans and host communities in 5 neighboring countries are currently in need of support. Many of them have no means to earn a living. Meanwhile, estimates indicate that close to 6.5 million Afghans still live as refugees in neighboring Iran and Pakistan — many without registration or legal status. Over 1 million people returned in 2021. The situation strained the capacity of existing services and caused concerns about reintegration and difficult living conditions. Just in the last two months another 80,000 children have been displaced and 10 million are now facing famine.

The United Nations agreed an approximate number of 275,000 Afghan refugees were to be offered the opportunity of asylum but less than half of that quota has been met. There is strong evidence of high value targets being left behind that are on the Taliban kill list, including young sports girls who not only have all rights of sport but who are living with an imminent threat to life.

Overall, there were nearly 3 million Afghan asylum-seekers and people considered refugees under the United Nations High Commissioner Refugees (UNHCR) mandate in other countries in 2021, according to data provided by the refugee agency to U.S. News. The top four host countries alone — most of which are located relatively near Afghanistan — welcomed close to 90% of the total. After the top nine, there were 156,995 hosted between 90 countries, the U.N. agency reports.

The U.S. ranked No.22, with 2,861 Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers hosted in 2021, according to the U.N., though the U.S. State Department has said more than 74,000 Afghans overall have come to the country in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover. Most Afghans who came to the U.S. after the evacuation arrived through humanitarian parole, a process overseen by the Department of Homeland Security in which Afghan nationals are approved for admission to the U.S. on a case-by-case basis for a period of two years. That process is distinct and much faster than the one used by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which works with U.N. qualified refugees.

Of note, the U.N. has specific definitions for “asylum-seeker” and “refugee.” An asylum-seeker can be a person who is seeking international protection but whose claim for refugee status has not been determined, or for whom determination is impractical. Not every asylum-seeker ultimately will be recognized as a refugee, but every refugee was initially an asylum-seeker.

Whereas, on 3 November 2022 over 11,600 individuals had been relocated to the U.K under the Afghan Relocation Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme (including during the August 2021 evacuation). The Ministry of Defense estimates that around 4,600 Afghans (including dependents) are still eligible for relocation.

On 7 February 2023 a press conference was held at the House of Lords, Houses of Parliament together with interviews conducted by the BBC and a gala reception held at the London Scottish Regiment House to celebrate the resettlement of the twenty-one Afghan refugees and their nuclear families and coaches. It was a spectacular event moderated by MP Lord Baron Vernon Coaker Member of the House of Lords, Life Peer, serving as Shadow Spokesperson for Home Affairs and Ministry of Defense. Guest speaker The Rt Honorable Lord Baron Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon who was appointed Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office gave a sincere and scholarly speech.

Three of the Afghan female athletes gave speeches along with other MP’s and individuals, myself included who had helped in the resettlement process. I personally felt very humbled and honored to give an impassioned speech at the Houses of Parliament. It’s a time for celebration but also a time to reflect and realize that the work is not over as there are many more refugees that need to be rescued. Lord Coaker said it best, “We will not forget the Afghan citizens that are still left behind and we will do everything in our power to get them safely out. It’s not possible to save everyone but no matter what we will try our very best to save as many as we can.”

It requires due diligence and all of us to do our part. People always say to me, “How can they make a difference, what can one person do that can make any difference?” But, that’s where they are wrong. It requires one match to kindle a forest fire and that’s why one person can cause tens of thousands to eventually come together and that way we all can make a difference. It’s up to us all.

I feel very honored to have been able to address the Houses of Parliament and certainly humbled on the momentous occasion.

My Speech: “Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, honored guests, dignitaries and esteemed Members of Parliament. I am extremely honored and humbled to be here. First, I would like to thank Ciro Orsini for your steadfast friendship and Yvette Hoyle of Help Children Now Charity for trusting in me and in the partnership of my foundation We Can Save Children to help facilitate an understanding of the urgency of the plight of the Afghan athletes and their nuclear families, and to extend this understanding within the We Can Save Children network of policy makers and power holders in the United States. I would be remiss if I just stood idly by and did nothing to help.

Additionally, I personally must give thanks to the UK government and so many here, which I’m meeting for the first time, for stepping up to the plate and allowing them safe passage and security here in the UK when every other door was slammed in their faces.

But our admiration and respect must go to the Afghans themselves, as they are the real heroes. If not for their courage, fortitude, tenacity and will to survive they would not be here. I dare say most of us in this room would not survive the horrendous ordeal they’ve had to endure under the rule of the Taliban, at least not with any sanity left intact.

It is disheartening, though, to think of the country of Afghanistan that has been left destitute and in turmoil with its children bearing the brunt of this. The number of children orphaned and displaced are in the millions, with 80,000 children displaced in Afghanistan in the last two months alone and over 10 million now facing famine. Sobering statistics that we all need to reflect on. I would reiterate the words from my most recent book “Generation Hope”.

Inshallah Hodavand Rohnamoh Va Poshtibaneh Shoma Bashad God Bless You — May Allah Bless You and Guide You.”

Vincent Lyn CEO & Founder of We Can Save Children Deputy Ambassador of International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) Director of Creative Development at African Views Organization Economic & Social Council at United Nations (ECOSOC) Editor-in-Chief at Wall Street News Agency Rescue & Recovery Specialist at International Confederation of Police & Security Experts