Former Afghanistan women's basketball team captain calls Taliban university ban "disaster"

By Ayushi Agarwal
Bilbao [Spain], December 22 (ANI): Calling the ban on University education for Afghan women by the Taliban a "disaster," Nilofar Bayat, former captain of Afghanistan's wheelchair basketball team and a two-time war victim, said that the next step will be that women are not allowed to breathe or exist in the society.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Nilofar, who fled from Afghanistan after the Taliban came into power, said, "Unfortunately, Taliban said that women are not allowed to go to universities and we saw that girls couldn't enter the Universities. It is almost one and a half years that schools are closed for girls and now it's time for universities and girls aren't allowed to go to universities. This is a disaster. I feel that with these kinds of restrictions, we see they are pushing women, tightening everything, the next plan for women in Afghanistan will be to not breathe, and the next plan by the Taliban for women will be that women are not allowed to exist or live in this society. Because every day they are adding new rules, new restrictions and women are no more a part of the society in Afghanistan."
Earlier, on Tuesday, Afghanistan's Taliban rulers banned university education for women nationwide, provoking condemnation from many countries over another assault on human rights. Despite promising a softer rule when they seized power last year, the Taliban have ratcheted up restrictions on all aspects of women's lives, ignoring international outrage.
"We all know the Taliban will never change. All around the World, people understand that they will not change. They are the same terrorists they were 25 years ago. When they came for the first time to Afghanistan, they destroyed the huge country and killed thousands of people. I left Afghanistan when the Taliban came because I was in danger because of my activities in Afghanistan. All the speeches that I gave against the Taliban. Of course, as a woman, I wasn't safe in Afghanistan. I decided to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban came. It has been one year that I am living with no home. I left everything behind and saved my life," she said.
When the Taliban were in power in the late 1990s, a rocket hit Bayat's family home when she was two years old. In the attack, her brother was killed, her father was injured and she lost a leg and injured her spinal cord. This incident changed the life of Nilofar and the Taliban left an impact early on Afghan basketballers. Years later, the young woman started practising basketball in a wheelchair and became one of the outstanding players in her country's national team. The return to power of the Taliban forced Bayat to leave Afghanistan on 18th August 2021 and she landed in Spain later.
"I am a two-time victim of war by the Taliban. They destroyed my life and took all my achievements that I had. To live, to improve my society, to work as a normal person like all others around the world. But they didn't allow us to continue. Everything happened suddenly, and the Taliban took everything that I had. I could not even say bye to my dear ones I had in Afghanistan. I left everything behind I worked my whole life. It has been more than a year that we have been carrying a huge pain that is not ours. We are fighting with a group of terrorists that they came because of the decision of other countries in Afghanistan. It has been one year that we are paying the price of this war. Unfortunately, this is not about me. It is about the life of 34 million people in Afghanistan", she added. (ANI)