BarcelonaKabul, 30 years ago. Nilofar Bayat was only two years old when a missile launched by the Mujahideen fell on his home. The explosion caused the Afghan girl to suffer a spinal cord injury. His life was marked forever. Worse luck was his brother, who died because of the rocket. Years later, the young woman started practicing basketball in a wheelchair, and became one of the most outstanding players in her country’s national team.
The Taliban’s return to power forced Bayat to flee Afghanistan. Getting to the airport wasn’t easy, but he managed to get around the various Taliban checkpoints. “There was the sound of gunshots and a great sense of danger,” he recalls. A Basque club, Bidaideak Bilbao BSR, took her in as a refugee. A few months after her exodus, the player dedicated herself to participating in colloquiums in educational centers to explain the harsh situation that her country is experiencing. “In Afghanistan there is no life for anyone, especially women, who cannot do anything on their own.” The aim of these talks, which count on the collaboration of Amnesty International, is to share what is happening in Afghanistan in order to try not to forget the world and to pressure the Taliban regime to reopen the schools.
The withdrawal of international troops in the summer of 2021 led to a large exodus. “It is terrible, now there is no life for anyone. It is dangerous for men and women, but women are the most affected, because every day there is a new rule and they tighten and put more pressure on women. Now people are below the poverty line, they don’t have jobs, people are not safe, the Taliban are kidnapping young women and families don’t know where they are, they are killing people, the war is in the north of Afghanistan and the world he is forgetting us. People are selling their children for food in Afghanistan and winter is coming and the challenge will be twofold. We have a very hard and cold winter,” he explains in English in statements collected by the Efe agency. Her testimony led to the BBC highlighting her as one of the 100 most inspiring women of 2021.
“Afghan women cannot do anything alone, we need the support of the world again to face the Taliban. We are paying the price of war for our government’s friendship with the United States. The war on Afghanistan is because of our location, we are the key to Asia, we have a border with Asian powers like Iran or China and we are very close to countries like India or Russia. As long as there are economic or political interests in the country, the human rights of women or children mean nothing,” warns Bayat, who plays on a mixed wheelchair basketball team. The actions of the journalist Paloma del Río and the president of the Spanish Basketball Federation, Jorge Garbajosa, were decisive.
“I never lost hope”
Nilofar Bayat, who studied law and worked for the Red Cross, is the founder of Free Women for Afghanistan. Now he is asking the Spanish government to support the Afghan people and he believes that this decision would have an effect on other countries, which would also add to this support. “The first thing we have to do is not accept the Taliban as a legal government, because we did not vote. It was the decision of the United States that the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and we have to support the Afghans. If Spain It’s a great job, which can have an effect on other countries. I’m sure that if Spain does it, other countries will do it,” she recalls.
“I have a terrible memory of the Taliban era because they left me with a disability. The war completely changed my life, but I have never lost hope,” says Bayat, who suffered double discrimination for years. “It’s hard to be a woman and live in Afghanistan. Especially if you have a disability. People see disability as a flaw for women… and that makes us suffer from a very young age.”
