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Fifa has officially recognized the Afghan women's football team as a national team in exile, allowing them to compete internationally. Captain Fatima Haidari expressed that this recognition is a significant moment for the team and a validation of their existence.
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Fatima Haidari was sat at home in Italy when she received a video call from Fifa chief Gianni Infantino. On the screen alongside the captain of the Afghan womenâs football team, spread across time zones and continents, were the faces of her teammates, women exiled from their home country for playing the sport they loved.
It was Infantino who made the surprise announcement, informing the players that Fifa would be formally recognising them as a national team in exile, eligible to play in international competitions. Almost five years after many fled Afghanistan following the armed takeover by the Taliban, Haidari tells The Independent that the news was met with an outpouring of emotion.
âWhen he told us, we were all crying from afar,â says Haidari, the 24-year-old skipper of the newly formed Afghan Women United. Fifa announced the move on the 29 April, saying it would amend its regulations to allow the formation of the new national team despite the objections of the Taliban regime in Kabul.
For Haidari, who as a teen trained in secret in conservative Herat even during the rule of the previous Nato-backed Afghan government, this was a moment of vindication more than a decade in the making. âItâs not just news,â she says. âWeâve made history.â
It was 2013, long before the Taliban swept back to power in Afghanistan, when as a 12-year-old Haidari asked her father for permission to play football. âI saw two or three girls and I saw the ball they were playing with their feet. It was the first time for me to see that, because in Afghanistan you are not used to it. It is not that you go out of your house and with guys, you just play. I mean, it is not normal,â Haidari recalls.
Fatema Haidari, 24, during a match against Chad (Fifa)
âCan I join you?â Haidari asked the girls. âCan I play with you?â
âYeah,â they replied.
She didnât know then that a football federation had been newly set up in Herat that allowed girls to play football.
Everything after that was like a dream. âI can never forget that moment when I told my dad. I asked him, âCan I go?â And he took my hand and said, âLetâs go and see.ââ
Fifa announced that it would formally recognize the Afghan women's football team as a national team in exile, enabling them to participate in international competitions.
Fatima Haidari, the captain of the team, expressed that the news brought tears of joy to the players, marking a historic moment for them.
The team members fled Afghanistan following the Taliban's armed takeover, which severely restricted women's rights and participation in sports.
Fatima Haidari trained in secret during the previous government and faced significant cultural restrictions on women's participation in sports.
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Afghan Women United players sing the national anthem before a match against Chad at Stade Municipal de Berrechid on 26 October 2025 (FIFA via Getty)
That moment, which in many parts of the world might seem so ordinary, was anything but in Afghanistan. Even under the Nato-backed government, football was not a ânormal childhood wish for a girlâ and training often happened out of sight. âWe were hiding all the time,â Haidari says. âIn a place where no men in the society could see us.â
Still, something was changing. Womenâs leagues emerged. Tournaments were held. By 2014, teams like hers were competing nationally. âWe had everything,â she says. âWe were making history.â
Then, in what she describes as âtwo to three daysâ, her world collapsed. When the Taliban swept into Kabul in 2021 after driving out the Nato forces, the shift was immediate and absolute. âYou feel like you have lost everything,â Haidari says.
What followed was a race against time. Players called contacts abroad. Journalists, former teammates, activists, searching for any way out. For Haidari who was in Herat, the message was stark: get to Kabul, now.
âWe travelled more than 36 hours,â she says. âWithout eating, without sleeping, just to get there.â
An Afghan Women United player during a match against Chad on 26 October 2025 (Fifa)
At the Kabul airport, chaos reigned. Hundreds of Afghans crammed onto planes, scrambling to escape the Taliban. The American military, in the final hours of leaving the country after 20 years, had closed the airport to commercial flights to evacuate their allies and members of the now-collapsed previous government.
Brutal scenes unfolded as thousands of desperate people crowded into the airport, beseeching the American, British and other European forces â which many of them had worked for over the previous two decades â to get them out. Some even held onto the sides of departing jets before falling to their deaths.
âEverybody has seen the photos,â Haidari says. âYou just try to survive. You just try to find a way to just get out.â
Match shorts in Afghan Women's United dressing room prior to their match against Tunisia in Casablanca on 29 October 2025 (Fifa)
Haidari escaped with the help of the Italian army, which had been stationed in Herat and was leaving along with the rest of the Nato contingent.
She is now a resident of Italy and plays in its football leagues. Her teammates are spread across Europe, Australia, and North America. Many of them were helped in their bids to flee Afghanistan by Fifa, alongside Western governments and organisations, in 2021.
While some have since received asylum, others have been left to navigate uncertain legal statuses. For a long time, their identity as a national team existed only in memory.
âFor five years, we were told the Afghan womenâs national team could never compete again because the men who took our country would not allow it,â former captain Khalida Popal, who played a pivotal role in coordinating with authorities from six countries to facilitate the evacuation of the players and their families, says.
The reason was structural as much as political: Fifa rules required recognition of the team from the Afghanistan Football Federation, an institution which, under the Taliban, wouldnât support womenâs football.
Gianni Infantino, president of Fifa, applauds as he poses for a photograph with players of Afghan Women's United prior to their match against Tunisia on 29 October 2025 (Fifa)
That changed last month after Fifa amended its rules to formally recognise the team, allowing the exiled footballers to represent their country.
While itâs now too late for the team to qualify for the 2027 Womenâs World Cup in Brazil, they can participate in qualification for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Fifaâs decision follows years of lobbying by players, activists and human rights groups and builds on a pilot programme launched in 2025 to organise training camps and friendly matches for the displaced players.
The 23-player squad earlier played in friendly tournaments with Chad, Tunisia, and Libya between October and November 2025.
Their new status enables the Afghan players to wear their countryâs name again in official matches, which they have not done since 2018.
âThis opportunity means everything to me,â Haidari says, meaning Fifaâs recognition. âIt goes beyond football, itâs about giving a voice to Afghan women and showing the world that nothing can silence us. Representing my country again is the greatest honour.â
Inside Afghanistan, women are effectively banned from sport, and restricted from formal education, employment and public life.
Afghan women walk on the outskirts of Kabul (AFP via Getty)
Fifaâs strategy seeks to navigate this divide. Its programme includes three strands: limited support for women and girls still inside Afghanistan through humanitarian channels; diplomatic engagement aimed at easing restrictions; and direct support for players in exile with training camps, coaching and mental health services, the governing body tells The Independent.
Since players are scattered across the world, Fifa provides training and support to individual players. âAs part of the support package Fifa provides, individual coaching plans are developed for players taking part in the selection process, in addition to training and playing opportunities at local clubs.â
The body âfunds the overall delivery of team operations for Afghan Women United as part of the dedicated and wider Fifa Strategy for Afghan womenâs footballâ.
âFifa also provides a support package for all 90 players taking part in the selection process for the matches scheduled for June.â
Afghans fleeing Kabul are crammed inside a US Air Force cargo plane headed to Qatar on 15 August 2021 (AFP via Getty)
Matches for Afghan Women United will be organised by its coaching team led by Pauline Hamill and Fifa. âAmongst other factors, player safety is a key area considered for matches and prospective host member associations,â Fifa says.
Haidari says that when they do come together for a game, dressing-room conversations with her teammates are at the same time ordinary and momentous.
âWhen you are in the dressing room, you just think about playing, and, you see your past, you see your future, you see the next generation, you see everything in that moment, and you see yourself, and it's a big moment,â she says.
The weight, she insists, is not history but responsibility. âI feel like I have the responsibility to be the voice of Afghan women.â
That sense of purpose is echoed across the squad. Goalkeeper Elaha Safdari describes the team as âa voice for Afghan women and girls who do not have access to basic human rightsâ, playing not only for themselves but for those left behind.
Afghan women walk on the outskirts of Kabul (Reuters)
Although Haidari has seen her family abroad in recent years, she has not been able to return home. She may never. âI still have this fear. Anything can happen in moments,â she says.
âI want to go back to my homeland one day. I have 19 years of memories there, and my friends are still waiting for me. They're hoping that I can come back one day.â
She avoids framing her decision to be a footballer as political. âSport has nothing to do with politics. It is just to have our freedom,â she says, âto show women exist.â
In the immediate term, the team is expected to play international friendlies and potential qualification matches for the 2028 Olympics.
For now, progress comes in fragments: a training camp in England, a tournament in Morocco, a first win against Libya after years away from international competition.
Afghan Women United team players pose before their match against Chad on 26 October 2025 (Fifa)
Fifaâs recognition has given Haidari and her teammates something they had lost for years: a flag to play under, a name that connects them to a nation.
âMy ambition is to compete at the highest level of football and to represent Afghanistan with pride,â she says. âOutside of football, I want to build a career in business and continue supporting womenâs rights.â
The meaning of it all comes back to something quieter than politics or policy. âIt is about love,â she says. âLove and passion, and showing the world that we are still here.â