The two Afghan athletes
Zakia Koudadadi and Nilofar Bayat
will not be able to participate in the Paralympics in Tokyo, but they are safe.
Zakia
it is in the hands of the Australians. He made an appeal to the international community through ANSA on August 17, his words were relaunched the next day by the New York Times becoming an international case. Australia has granted a visa to her and a group of other sportsmen, mostly women, now safe and perhaps already in flight after entering Kabul airport. He is on his way to Australia with other Afghan athletes, mostly women. The athletes were taken to Dubai, from where they will then be embarked for Australia with humanitarian visas. The rescue mission was coordinated by a small group of former athletes, including former Canadian Olympian and Sydney lawyer Nikki Dryden, who collected the files of the athletes at risk.Zakia's was followed by the Italian Federtaekwondo and the Italian Paralympic Committee
After all the fear and uncertainty experienced in Kabul, the Afghan national wheelchair basketball player
Nilofar and her husband Ramish
, also an athlete of the same discipline, can finally see a light of hope at the end of the tunnel: evacuated from the 'Afghanistan under the responsibility of Spain, both have accepted an offer to play in a Bilbao team, the Bidaideak. Even if, for Bayat, it is now impossible to leave behind what he experienced in recent days in Afghanistan, a country in which he sees no "future or hope", let alone forget all the people "who are looking for a way out" from there. This is what he told Iberian reporters at a press conference held today.
"I am very happy to be here, but also sad and angry about the difficult situation in my country," said the player
. "In recent days I have seen the danger and suffering that a Taliban government brings to the people," he added
. For the arrival of Bayat and her husband in Spain, the chain of solidarity initiated by an Iberian journalist who brought their desperate requests for help to the attention of the authorities was decisive. "I want to thank all the beautiful people who have offered me their support to get here," he said. In his view, the need now remains to continue to support people who have remained at home. "We ask the United Nations and other countries to help Afghanistan and not leave us alone. The Taliban are the same as 20 years ago, and we see how this is a danger especially for women and girls", is the appeal of the basketball player.