At her third Olympics, Afghan sprinter Kimia Yousofi was not running for gold but for the oppressed women and girls of her country.
After finishing last in the 100-meter preliminary heat on Friday, the 28-year-old athlete pulled out a piece of paper with an message she proudly held for all to see. The paper read “Education, Sport, our rights” in black, green and red. The three colors represent the Afghanistan flag.
“I have a message for Afghan girls,” Yousofi told reporters after the heat in the northern suburbs of Paris. “Don’t give up, don’t let others decide for you. Just search for opportunity, and then use that opportunity.”
She then opened up about why she fled Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. She had wanted to stay, she explained, but was told she could be in danger as a “woman with a public face.”
Yousofi was born in Iran along with three brothers but fled as a baby with her parents in 1996 and she has since embraced her identity as an Afghan woman.
“So, when I opened my eyes for the first time, it was as a refugee. But I am an Afghan. I will always represent my women and people,” she said. “Our girls in Afghanistan, our women, they want basic rights, education, and sport.”
After being scouted at the age of 16, Yousofi would go on to represent Afghanistan in the 2016 Rio Olympics and in Tokyo five years later.
Representing the ‘stolen dreams and aspirations’ of Afghan women
Ahead of Friday’s competition, Yousofi said she was representing “the stolen dreams and aspirations” of women and girls in Afghanistan who “don’t have the authority to make decisions as free human beings.”
She was set to represent the country at Summer Olympics in 2021 but left Iran when Taliban took power, moving to Australia.
Yousofi is one of six athletes representing the country this year − three women and three men. Olympic athletes are selected by the Afghanistan Olympic Committee, which operates outside the nation. The Taliban does not acknowledge the female athletes, with the governments sports directorate Atal Mashwani telling AFP in July that “only three athletes are representing Afghanistan.”
However, Yousofi told reporters in Paris that her male teammates have been nothing but supportive.
Opinion: As an Afghan woman athlete, I’m proud to see us at the Olympics despite the Taliban
Yousofi says women are not considered human in Afghanistan
Human rights organization Amnesty International has called the conditions for Afghan women and girls “draconian.”
Yousofi said Friday that the conditions are “terrible.”
In March, the government made adultery punishable by public stoning execution as part of its interpretation of sharia law, the Guardian reported.
“To be able to decide for their life, that has been taken away from them for the last two years,” Yousofi said. “We are fighting for that.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Afghanistan Olympic sprinter Kimia Yousofi calls out Taliban
