Afghanistan's Kimia Yousofi makes a political statement after a heat in the women's 100-meter run at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Saint-Denis in France on Friday — AP SAINT-DENIS, France, Aug 02 (AP): To get a sense of the real race Afghanistan's lone woman at the Olympic track meet is running, one only needed to look at the back of her bib.
On it, in handwritten script, were the words, spelled like this: "Education" and "Our Rights."
Women and girls in Afghanistan have suffered immensely since Kimia Yousofi's home country was taken over by the Taliban in August 2021. A United Nations report last year said the country has become the most repressive in the world for women and girls, who are deprived of virtually all their basic rights.
"I think I feel a responsibility for Afghan girls because they can't talk," Yousofi said Friday after finishing last in her 100-meter preliminary heat.
Her 13.42-second sprint down the track was not the main point of this trip. Yousofi's story was a bracing illustration of how these trips to the Olympics aren't always about winning and losing.
"I'm not a politics person, I just do what I think is true," Yousofi said. "I can talk with media. I can be the voice of Afghan girls. I (can) tell (people) what they want - they want basic rights, education and sports."
Before she was born, Yousofi's parents fled Afghanistan during the Taliban's previous rule. She and her three brothers were born and raised in neighboring Iran.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
