{"id":1228,"date":"2021-09-01T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2021-09-17T17:54:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T15:54:56","slug":"afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated After Taliban Outlaws Women\u2019s Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Following the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized control of most of the country including the capital city of Kabul. Ahmadullah Wasiq, Taliban\u2018s deputy head of the cultural commission, told Australia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/news\/taliban-say-women-won-t-be-allowed-to-play-sport\/3d58c3c9-9ffd-4f13-98e7-b1ecfe9ce2df\">SBS News<\/a> women will not be allowed to play cricket and other sports because \u201cthey might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2021\/09\/08\/sport\/afghanistan-cycling-cricket-taliban-spt-intl\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>, the United Arab Emirates welcomed 41 Afghan refugees arriving from Tajikistan, including 25 members of the Afghan girls\u2018 cycling team.<\/p>\n<p>One cyclist, who asked not to be named out of fear, said: \u201cOh my god, it really is tough to explain our situation in words.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe main reason I left Afghanistan is because I was not secure as an athlete. I was doing sports in Afghanistan but that is not safe nowadays\u2026 I was forced to leave my country.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1240\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1240\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afghan-cycling-refugees-profimedia-0630006304.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1240 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afghan-cycling-refugees-profimedia-0630006304.jpg\" alt=\"Afghan cycling team\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afghan-cycling-refugees-profimedia-0630006304.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afghan-cycling-refugees-profimedia-0630006304-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afghan-cycling-refugees-profimedia-0630006304-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1240\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reception center for Afghan refugees who have arrived in Italy on humanitarian flights. Some athletes of the women&#8217;s soccer and cycling national team are guests of the center. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Taliban reclaimed Afghanistan\u2019s capital after nearly two decades of conflict. The newly formed government is filled with veterans of the militant group who oversaw the fight against the US-led coalition.<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s former captain, Khalida Popal, said: \u201cWe used to practice, we used to have competitions, we even used to compete with boys, and we were happy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a girl cyclist, as an athlete, I was doing sports in Afghanistan to stand for the right of humans, mostly girls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to prove that girls are capable, that girls have the right to do what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The refugees are being held in the UAE for processing before they will be relocated to Canada, their final destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized control of most of the country including the capital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":1252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated - We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated After Taliban Outlaws Women\u2019s Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized control of most of the country including the capital [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-01T15:54:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-17T15:54:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"judecornish\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Monica Buck\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/\",\"name\":\"Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated - We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-01T15:54:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-17T15:54:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/60641537e070036f5291c9a9e7f4f9d2\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg\",\"width\":1366,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Afghan cycling team\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda WeLoveCycling - United Kingdom\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/60641537e070036f5291c9a9e7f4f9d2\",\"name\":\"judecornish\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30b2f9a2a7c8d24803a8c271140b53f7fedcffc947be2979cb07ea01343040a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30b2f9a2a7c8d24803a8c271140b53f7fedcffc947be2979cb07ea01343040a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"judecornish\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/author\/judecornish\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated - We Love Cycling","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated After Taliban Outlaws Women\u2019s Sport","og_description":"Following the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized control of most of the country including the capital [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom","article_published_time":"2021-09-01T15:54:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-09-17T15:54:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1366,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"judecornish","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Monica Buck","Est. reading time":"4"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/","name":"Afghan All-Girl Cycling Team Evacuated - We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg","datePublished":"2021-09-01T15:54:14+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-17T15:54:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/60641537e070036f5291c9a9e7f4f9d2"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2021\/09\/01\/afghan-all-girl-cycling-team-evacuated-after-taliban-outlaws-womens-sport\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/18\/2021\/09\/Afgha-cycling-team-profimedia-0562306975-CVR.jpg","width":1366,"height":600,"caption":"Afghan cycling team"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - United Kingdom","description":"\u0160koda WeLoveCycling - United Kingdom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/60641537e070036f5291c9a9e7f4f9d2","name":"judecornish","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30b2f9a2a7c8d24803a8c271140b53f7fedcffc947be2979cb07ea01343040a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/30b2f9a2a7c8d24803a8c271140b53f7fedcffc947be2979cb07ea01343040a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"judecornish"},"url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/author\/judecornish\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}