More than a week after they were supposed to arrive in Dubai for their first FIFA-recognized match since they were forced in to exile by the Taliban, Afghanistan's female footballers are left in limbo after their entry visas were repeatedly rejected.
The Afghanistan women's refugee team was set to play its first match since 2021 against Chad on Thursday as part of a four-team tournament publicized as the "FIFA Unites Women's Series 2025." But the squad have instead been turned away at airports on multiple occasions with FIFA offering no information on whether the tournament will go ahead.
Given the flight time to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Australia, where the majority of the squad are based, is about 14 hours and the visas are still not sorted, it seems impossible that the original tournament schedule can be kept. Yet it is still on FIFA's website and world football's governing body have not communicated any decisions or information.
Human rights lawyer, Alison Battison, helped the players escape Afghanistan in 2021 and then with their documentation for staying in Australia. While FIFA are not allowing the players to talk publicly for now, Battison said the mood among them is understandably fraught.
'Abandonment, trauma and disillusionment'
"Without referencing any specific players, I think you could say that there is a general atmosphere of abandonment, trauma and disillusionment," she told DW.
"The history of this team is such that it's really not just about sport. It's about women's rights and liberty to be who they can be, particularly for Afghan women, but also for women in other repressed societies. There is a lot of pressure on these women to succeed, to prove that they shouldn't just be back in the kitchen and making babies."
The Taliban have been brutally oppressive to women, with those that play sport a particular target. As such, the football team playing in a FIFA tournament was set to be a significant step.
Battison, who deals with these sorts of visa issues for refugees on a daily basis said that the job of issuing visas would have fallen to FIFA but that they were likely blocked by the UAE, who can sit on the applications indefinitely. DW has contacted FIFA for clarification on this matter and several others but has yet to receive a response.
"It is incredibly strange that you would have a FIFA-organized event in the UAE, which includes a team from the UAE and then the entity that is hosting it and has the power to issue visas, hasn't done so to one team. So there has to be something much bigger than women's sport in play."
UAE one of few countries to recognize Taliban
Again, there has been no communication or denial of this from FIFA or any other official source. However, the UAE are one of only a handful of countries to recognize the Taliban on a diplomatic level. The gulf state accepted the credentials of a Taliban-appointed diplomat as the ambassador of Afghanistan last year and welcomed the Taliban's minister of foreign affairs, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, to the country earlier this year.
The UAE also has a substantial Afghan diaspora population of about 300,000 in a country of about 10 million people. It is not a signatory to the United Nations refugee convention.
The lack of concrete information about why the Afghan players had their visa applications rejected and whether the tournament will still go ahead at all – even at a later date – has left them in a bad position.
"There's cultural embarrassment for the women themselves, because they've been built up at these beacons of hope with a lot of people against them. It just gives ammunition to people who doubted them."
Battison has spent thousands of dollars on travel and accommodation to attend the tournament as a fan but will now likely be unable to watch any football. She added that she also found no way to actually buy a ticket for the opening match.
"I'm going to be flying for 14 hours to not watch a game and stay overnight in the players' accommodation with no players there and then get up early and fly out. So perhaps not the greatest trip of my life," she said.
Losses go beyond sport
But she added that her financial losses were insignificant compared to the situation for the players.
"These women aren't getting paid, so they all have jobs or they're in school. A lot of them have the best English in their families and the most secure jobs in their families. So taking time off work and from education impacts not only them, but their families as well."
The human rights lawyer added that, in some cases, players' families were not supportive of their choice to play football and that their decision to do so still means they are "targeted" by the Taliban.
"For this to happen to the women when they're meant to be going to their first major tournament really gives support to anyone who doubted them. Has it been worthwhile ripping families apart? Well, at the moment, no. There are other questions about settling in Australia and the UK and other places, but when the basis of it was sport, it's a pretty dire and psychologically bad situation."
What happens next is unclear. While FIFA have remained silent, there have been some reports, given their failure to cancel or postpone, that the organization is looking to move the tournament elsewhere, with Qatar and Jordan mentioned. Battison believes this would be a mistake, with security issues for players and their families a primary concern and the logistics of travel, training and visas close to insurmountable.
Whatever happens, the wait and uncertainty for a group of players that have overcome so much to get to this point, goes on.
