ISLAMABAD: Members of Afghanistan’s women soccer team and their families arrived in Lahore, Pakistan today, local media said.
About 81 members of the team, comprising players and their family members were allowed to enter in Pakistan.
According to Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry, the Afghan women soccer players entered in Pakistan through the northwestern Torkham border crossing holding valid travel documents.
“We welcome Afghanistan women football team,” Chaudhry tweeted, providing no further details.
However, the Afghan female footballers were issued emergency humanitarian visas to play football matches in Pakistan.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Wednesday welcomed the Afghan women football team’s arrival in Pakistan via the Torkham border crossing.
“We welcome the Afghan women football team, who arrived at Torkham border from Afghanistan,” he tweeted. He added the players have valid Afghan passports and Pakistani visas.
The Afghan women football team was received by Nauman Nadeem of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) at the border.
Australia’s cricket authority earlier threatened to cancel a historic maiden Test between the two countries – set to take place in November – after a senior Taliban official went on television to say it was “not necessary” for women to play.
During their first stint in power, before being ousted in 2001, the Taliban banned most forms of entertainment — including many sports. Women were also completely barred from playing any sport.
When the group last ruled Afghanistan two decades ago, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work and education. Women were barred from sports and that is likely to continue in this regime as well.
A Taliban representative last week told Australian broadcaster SBS that he did not think women would be allowed to play cricket because it was “not necessary” and would be against Islam.
“Islamic Emirate discourages women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed,” SBS quoted the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, as saying.
Most of Afghanistan women’s national football team players have already been evacuated from the country to Australia.
Several former and current women football players fled the country following the Taliban takeover, while a former captain of the team urged players still in Afghanistan to burn their sports gear and delete their social media accounts to avoid reprisals. The sport’s governing body FIFA said last month it was working to evacuate those remaining in the country.
