Afghan women's football team returns to international competition after Taliban exile

The Afghan women’s football team is competing internationally again for the first time in years, with 23 members of the Afghan Women United programme currently in a training camp in Auckland, New Zealand, preparing to face the Cook Islands. The return follows a pivotal FIFA ruling in April that granted the team eligibility for international competition despite the Afghan football federation’s refusal to recognise them.

For many of the players, the road to Auckland began with a desperate evacuation. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and immediately shut down all women’s sports, the national team’s players were forced into hiding. Thirteen of them eventually found refuge in Australia, where they continued to train and play while clinging to the hope of one day representing their country again.

Midfielder Mona Amini, speaking to the Associated Press, described the moment FIFA’s decision came through. “It was a special day that we heard that Afghanistan can represent again our flag in international tournaments,” she said. “This is the result of hard work that we did in the past four or five years.”

The team had already marked a symbolic milestone seven months before the FIFA ruling, beating Libya in the ‘Unite’ tournament — their first international friendly in years. “After three years we heard our anthem,” Amini recalled. “That was amazing for me.”

For goalkeeper Fatima Yousufi, based in Melbourne, the recognition carried a deeply personal weight. She remembers leaving Afghanistan with a single backpack. “To be safe and to continue to be alive,” she said, describing her departure. FIFA’s ruling transformed that sacrifice into something more. “We’re going to have the national team — that’s the greatest thing ever that could have happened to the team,” Yousufi said. “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.”

The squad is now spread across Australia, Europe, and the United States. Coach Pauline Hamill coordinates talent identification camps and assembles the group for matches. The team’s last official competitive fixture was in 2018.

For the players, the memories of their darkest days serve as a constant motivator — not only for themselves, but for the women and girls still living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.