Enlarge image
Afghan women at the Pakistani border (symbolic image)
Photo:
Abdul Khaliq Achakzai / REUTERS
Women soccer players from the Afghan youth national teams managed to flee to Pakistan one month after the Taliban came to power.
The Pakistani authorities announced on Wednesday.
A total of more than 75 people, including relatives and coaches, crossed the northern border on Tuesday.
According to the non-governmental organization Football for Peace, the girls wore burqas and only switched to headscarves after the border.
After the onward journey to Lahore, the young athletes were welcomed with garlands of flowers.
They are expected to travel on to Qatar.
Football for Peace's Sardar Naveed Haider said he had received an evacuation request from another organization and forwarded it to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
This approved the admission of the young female soccer players.
The group of young players along with families and coaches had already tried to flee the country last month.
A fatal bomb attack at Kabul airport intervened, as a person close to the group told the AFP news agency.
After the Taliban came to power, women must fear repression and for their lives.
The ultra-conservative Taliban had declared that they would respect women's rights within their interpretation of Islam.
The new rulers of Afghanistan, who banned women from any sporting activity during their first reign in the 1990s, have indicated that women and girls will again face significant restrictions in sport under their leadership.
Numerous players from the Afghan women's national team and their families have already been brought to safety in Australia.
ara / sid