RIt took obina Muqimyar 100 meters for the world to notice her. Her sprint, which lasted 14.14 seconds, made sports history at the Summer Games in Athens. In 2004, he mainly showed something previously unknown: an Afghan Olympian. The new symbol of hope for numerous women and girls in their homeland.
“I don’t want to be married. I just want to try to be a good athlete. I want to change the history of Afghanistan. I want other women to see me, to follow me, ”said Muqimyar at the time, just three years after the fall of the Taliban. Such progress had been impossible under the first Islamist regime, which ran from 1996 to 2001.
Time of oppression
The strictly religious laws of the Taliban meant a massive suppression of women’s rights. They were not allowed to work and were only allowed to show themselves in public fully veiled and accompanied by a male relative. Girls fared no better.
Inspire courage and ambition: Muqimyar during training before her historic run in Athens.
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Bild: Picture-Alliance
In Max Davidson’s book Field of Courage, Robina Muqimyar recalls: “There was nothing for us to do under the Taliban. You couldn’t go to school, you couldn’t play, you couldn’t do anything. You were only home all day. And when it comes to sport: You couldn’t even dream of that. “
The International Olympic Sports Committee (IOC) responded in 1999, suspending the country and banning it from the Sydney Olympics. In 2001 the Taliban were finally ousted after the invasion of international troops. Just a year later, Afghanistan was again a member of the IOC. For Muqimyar this meant a time of upheaval.
Another chance
In 2003, Afghan sports scouts searched schools for candidates for starting positions at the Olympic Games in Athens – so-called wild cards. Muqimyar gathered up all her courage and volunteered. Davidson describes the first steps of a girl who wanted to make more of her fate. Long trousers, a wide robe, an annoying scarf and worn sandals: this is how Muqimyar ran her first 100 meters in front of the talent scouts – in around 15 seconds. In the end, however, it was will and ambition that made her place at the Games possible, according to Davidson.
Symbol against oppression: After his sporting career, Muqimyar went into politics.
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Bild: Picture-Alliance
Without sponsors, trainers and proper shoes or footwear, Muqimyar began her training. In the crumbling Ghazi Stadium in the heart of Kabul, of all places, she found a place where she could improve her times. Where the Taliban had their opponents publicly tortured and executed just a few years earlier. The cemented floor was littered with bullet holes.
Historic run
The bloody shadows of the past did not discourage Muqimyar, who, according to Davidson, soon became the proud owner of a set of cheap sports shoes: “I learned from the Taliban how to be oppressed,” she told him a few months before the games British news broadcaster BBC. “Now I will teach people how to defend themselves against them.”
On August 24, 2004, Muqimyar started in Athens in long trousers, a T-shirt and a headscarf in a preliminary run. The first race should be her last in these games. For the Afghan sprinter, who was penultimate but set a new national record, it was a victory across the board: “At least I was ahead of one of the runners. I think I did just fine. I will never forget this moment, ”said Muqimyar, who was allowed to compete again in Beijing in 2008 at the Olympics.
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Muqimyar’s commitment to women’s rights also went beyond the running track: first as Vice President of the Afghan Olympic Committee, later as a member of the Afghan Parliament. She gave television interviews, in Kabul there were posters with her face on the walls and on lampposts, a face that stood for the empowerment of women in Afghanistan.
Return of the Taliban
With the renewed seizure of power by the Taliban, the fear of a return to the old terror is growing. Despite the Islamists’ assertion that they have become more moderate, reports of mistreatment and massacre of all those who are seen as opponents of the new regime are mounting.
And for women in Afghanistan, too, so the concerns of human rights activists, the clock is now being turned back to the previous dark years. In many regions, their rights are already severely restricted, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Thousands of Afghans have already fled their homes – including several competitive athletes and their supervisors. They all saw no future in Afghanistan.
Robina Muqimyar’s historic run may only have lasted a few seconds and yet it was testimony to the struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan. Their survival remains just as uncertain under the new regime as Muqimyar’s whereabouts, of which there has been no trace for several weeks.
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