The Afghan women’s soccer team has been granted asylum in Portugal
ਅਫਗਾਨ ਮਹਿਲਾ ਫੁਟਬਾਲ ਟੀਮ ਨੂੰ ਪੁਰਤਗਾਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ ਸ਼ਰਣ
The Afghan women’s national soccer squad was nervous. They’d been travelling throughout the country for weeks, waiting for permission to leave.
One wants to be a doctor, while another wants to be a movie producer and still another wants to be an engineer. All of us aspire to be professional soccer players when we grow up.
Then, early Sunday, the message arrived: a charter jet would transport the girls and their families from Afghanistan to an unknown destination. They had already boarded the buses that would take them to the airport.
In Portugal, the Afghan women’s soccer team has been given refuge.
The women’s national soccer team of Afghanistan was worried. For weeks, they’d been travelling across the country, waiting for permission to depart.
One aspires to be a doctor, while another aspires to be a film producer, and yet another an engineer. When we grow up, we all want to be professional soccer players.
Then, on Sunday morning, the message arrived: the girls and their families would be transported from Afghanistan to an unknown destination by a charter jet. They were on their way to the airport and had already boarded the buses.
They arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, late Sunday.
Muhtaj, members of the soccer team, some of their family members, and soccer federation personnel spoke with the Associated Press this week about their final days in Afghanistan, the international effort to save them, and the possibility of their newfound freedom.
According to Nic McKinley, a CIA and Air Force veteran who founded Dallas-based DeliverFund, a nonprofit that has secured housing for 50 Afghan families, the rescue mission, dubbed Operation Soccer Balls, was coordinated with the Taliban through an international coalition of former US military and intelligence officials, US Senator Chris Coons, US allies, and humanitarian groups.
“Everything had to happen in a flash. “Our contact on the ground informed us we had roughly a three-hour window,” McKinley added. “It was a race against the clock.”
Several failed rescue operations, as well as a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport by Islamic State terrorists, the Taliban’s opponents, killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members, had hampered Operation Soccer Balls. The incident occurred during a terrifying airlift in which the US military admitted to cooperating with the Taliban to some extent.
