Afghanistan women s football team welcomes first international match in four years, FIFA supports

At the 2025 FIFA Unites: Women’s Series held in Bereshield, Morocco, the “Afghan Women United” team composed of Afghan female refugees lost 1-6 to the Chad team, ending their first international match in nearly four years. Despite the unsatisfactory results, for these players, being able to return to the green field is a huge victory in itself.

This game marks the first international match of the "Afghan Solidarity Women's Football Team" since its establishment. Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, women have been completely banned from participating in sports in Afghanistan. This team, composed of former international players and young players who have been exiled overseas, was born in this context. They were forced to flee their homeland because of their love for football, and now they finally have the opportunity to play official matches again with the support of FIFA.

In May 2025, with the unremitting efforts of Khalida Popal, the former Afghan women's football international and one of the founders of the 2007 national team, FIFA officially approved the establishment of this refugee women's football team as part of its "Afghanistan Women's Football Action Plan." The team was formed through multiple training sessions and was selected from about 70 Afghan female players who had been exiled overseas.

FIFA stated on its official website: "We have provided this team with important financial support, organized training camps in top-level facilities, and established a team of professional experts to ensure that Afghan female players can receive the same attention and opportunities as other high-level women's national teams."

"We are very grateful to FIFA for giving us the opportunity to represent the country. An opportunity to express the power of women. This is a clear message to the world: if women want to make a difference in life, whether in sports or other fields, they should have equal rights with men in society, and FIFA has made this dream come true, and we are deeply grateful for this," team captain Fatima Haidari said emotionally after the game.

Before the Taliban came to power, the Afghan women's football team had 25 registered international players. Their last international game was a 0-5 loss to Qatar in 2021. After this, most of the players fled to Australia and settled there. More than four years later today, in Morocco, Afghanistan scored the first goal from a penalty kick taken by forward Manoz Nouri, but were then reversed by their opponents who scored six goals in a row.

According to the schedule, the team will face Tunisia on Wednesday and Libya on Saturday to end the tournament.

In May last year, Popal said in an interview that the biggest wish of Afghan female players is to obtain full recognition from FIFA to participate in official international competitions. However, under current rules, FIFA can only recognize the Afghanistan Football Association's national team.

"Therefore, FIFA's rules must be changed so that we can represent Afghanistan as an official national team." Popal emphasized. Although they are currently unable to play as the "Afghanistan National Team", they have returned to the world football stage as the "Afghan Solidarity Women's Football Team" starting yesterday.