It was through a guard of honor made up of women and little girls in traditional costume, roses in hand, that Zakia Khudadadi was welcomed this Saturday at the Jean-Zay school in Besançon. At the initiative of the association of Afghans of Besançon, a packed room came to celebrate the New Year and listen to the parataekwondo champion, bronze medalist at the Paris Olympics, carry the message that women can also accomplish great things.
Woman, disabled, from a Shiite minority
The sportswoman fled her country in August 2021 when the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. Her fault: being a woman, being disabled and coming from a Shiite minority. Threatened with death, she posts a video on social networks addressed to the Afghan Paralympic committee. Behind her screen, a Franco-Iranian, touched by her message, contacted the French embassy. After three days of anguish, hidden under a chador pulled up to her eyes, Zakia Khudadadi passed through the checkpoints at Kabul airport thanks to the help of French military forces, boarded a plane chartered by France to Abu Dhabi and arrived in Paris on the morning of August 24.
“Sport is a personal fight against the Taliban”
Three years later, banned from the Afghan team, she offered the Paralympic refugee team the first medal in its history in Paris. “Sport is a personal fight against the Taliban, against all terrorists,” says the 26-year-old athlete in very good French. Now based in Paris, she must obtain French nationality “in three weeks” and should compete in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, under the tricolor banner. “After Tokyo, several countries offered to welcome me. I chose France because it was the first country that responded to my call. It was France that saved my life.”
“Afghan women feel abandoned by the West”
Her notoriety allows her to raise awareness about the situation of Afghan women in the media, and to “work for freedom and equality between men and women”. “It hurts my heart so much to see that they are in a complete prison. Every week it gets worse and worse,” she laments.
After forbidding women from whistling, singing, speaking in public, girls from going to school beyond primary school, after requiring international NGOs to separate from their female staff , the Taliban have just ordered to wall up windows in domestic spaces through which women can appear. A terrifying new step in their unhealthy obsession to roll back their rights.
Franco-Afghan journalist and director, imprisoned for ten months by the Taliban when he came to film a report on Afghan women, Mortaza Behboudi was also present in Besançon this Saturday. “Afghan women feel abandoned by the West. They were promised automatic refugee status. But hundreds are now waiting in neighboring countries for visas, contrary to what France and the European Union had committed to. Where is the reception? We must take action! “, implores the journalist. “We must not forget them. They are heroines who fight for their rights. Look what Zakia did! »
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