With determination, courage and lots of support, refugee players who form the Afghan women’s football team are getting another chance to advance their international careers, one that they say was denied to them when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Among them is Fatima Yousufi, who fled her country and arrived in Australia with a backpack and a burning ambition to play international football.
Yousufi and others like Mona Amini had been able to study and to play football until the Taliban took over and shut down all women’s sports. The national team players left Afghanistan, fearing persecution.
After a frantic evacuation, 13 of the players settled in Australia, where for five years they lived, played and trained in the hope of once again being allowed to represent their country.
This week, 23 members of the Afghan Women United program are in a training camp in Auckland, New Zealand, and will play games against a team from the Cook Islands.
The national football federation doesn’t recognise the women’s team. But in April, football’s world governing body granted the Afghan women’s team eligibility for international competition.
“It was a special day that we heard that Afghanistan can represent again our flag in international tournaments,” Amini, a midfielder, told The Associated Press in a Zoom call on Tuesday (June 2, 2026). “This is the result of hard work that we did in the past four or five years,” she added.
Afghan football players Mona Amini (left) and Sosan Mohammadi compete for the ball during a training session in Auckland, New Zealand on June 2, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
AP
Seven months ago, the Afghan women played in the so-called “Unite” tournament, and had a win over Libya. “It was a very special moment because we played in an international friendly tournament, and after three years we heard our anthem,” Amini said. “That was amazing for me,” she added.
FIFA’s subsequent recognition was another important milestone on a long and perilous journey. Yousufi, a Melbourne-based goalkeeper, remembers her reaction vividly.
“We’re going to have the national team! That’s the greatest thing ever that could have happened to the team. It was super important to us, especially thinking of the time when we arrived in Australia and we had lost everything: family, our childhood memories and that national team,” she said.
Yousufi said she left home with one backpack, “to be safe and to continue to be alive”. She said, “When we came here the most important part of our life was to be a football player and to be a football team.” She added, “When we we saw we could not be [officially] a national team and we could not represent our country… it was like I lost the game.”
Afghan women’s football player Fatima Yousufi (centre) stands with teammates during a training session in Auckland, New Zealand on June 2, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
AP
While many ended up in Australia, there are Afghan players spread across Europe and some in the United States. Coach Pauline Hamill holds talent identification camps and helps pull the squad together for games.
Memories of their darkest days remain a strong part of the team’s motivation to succeed, and to represent women and girls still in their homeland. The Afghan women’s team played its last official competitive match in 2018.
“We couldn’t play freely in Afghanistan. Going out from home was tough because there was the risk of the Taliban seeing us and finding that we were playing football. It was a very tough time and I’m pretty sure every one of the girls, every single one of us, fought hard to create this team and we are very happy right now to stay with each other.” Amini said.
Yousufi was a student and a football player, and she said it was difficult even before the Taliban returned to power “for a girl to play football in Afghanistan with such difficulties as family barriers and difficulties of the society to accept a woman in sport”.
“We were thinking of any other outcomes like the danger we were facing, everyday dangers in Afghanistan like bomb explosions. Considering all those things — and it was the same for the other girls — we took all those risks to be part of the national team and to be a football player,” Yousufi said.
Then life became even more difficult. Amini said, “The only thing humans want is freedom, and the Taliban took our freedom. It is really difficult that you cannot educate, you cannot play sport, you cannot go outside or you cannot do what you love…[or] follow your dreams.”
Amini said the refugee players now were determined to represent all women and girls in Afghanistan. “We are here and we are going to be trying our best to do something for them, to be the voice of them so that we could have a new generation for the future for the Afghanistan women’s national team,” she said.
Yousufi said she was among a group of players “adopted by the Australian government” and “we’re now living our life and continuing our journey with football, with our education and also being a voice for all those girls who are in Afghanistan.”
“Our team might be the one to change the way the people think and also the way that things are happening towards the girls and women in Afghanistan. We’re all trying our best show that women and girls can be part of the society and can be someone who is in education or in sport, that women also have the right to do that,” she said.
Published – June 03, 2026 12:04 pm IST
