Afghan women players make football debut in Australia

MELBOURNE, Apr 24 (AFP): Players from Afghanistan's national women's football team competed in a local league match in Australia on Sunday for the first time since fleeing the hardline Islamist Taliban.

The result was a scoreless draw after an Afghan goal was disallowed for being offside in a lower league amateur match in the eastern state of Victoria.

But for the Afghan women it was a powerful, symbolic victory as they returned to the pitch together after leaving their homeland to rebuild their lives in Australia.

The game showed that the Taliban could not stop the players, said team captain Nilab, who like her teammates did not give a family name so as to protect relatives living in Afghanistan.

"We still continue our fight and our combat just to play for the Afghanistan people," she told AFP.

"We fled the country but we are still thinking of our country and we are still working for our victory for our country."

Australia helped dozens of Afghan national women's team players and their relatives to escape when the Taliban swept back to power eight months ago.

The Taliban have since severely curtailed the freedoms of women, banning girls' education and preventing women from even boarding planes without a male relative.

But many settled in and around Melbourne, capital of the eastern state of Victoria, where professional A-League Women's side Melbourne Victory helped them to return to the field.