"FIFA: Recognize, Support Afghan Women’s Team in Exile", 25 March 2025

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should act to stop the ongoing discrimination against Afghan women footballers living in exile and facilitate their return to international competition, the Sport & Rights Alliance said in a report released today

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In two days, the Afghanistan Women’s National Football Team (AWNT) will be absent from the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers draw, which feeds into qualification for the 2027 Women’s World Cup – marking the second World Cup-qualifying cycle from which the team has been excluded since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021

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The new Sport & Rights Alliance report, titled “‘It’s not just a game. It’s part of who I am’: Afghan Women Footballers’ Fight for the Right to Play,” details how the Afghan women’s team, a symbol of women’s empowerment in post-Taliban Afghanistan, was specifically targeted for reprisals when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The report documents that dozens of Afghan women footballers who were evacuated to countries including Australia, Portugal, Albania, the United Kingdom and the United States remain eager and ready to represent Afghanistan in international competition

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FIFA regulations currently require the team to receive recognition from the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Football Federation, which will not recognize a women’s football team due to the Taliban’s ban on women’s sports.

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In response to a letter from the Sport & Rights Alliance requesting comment on the report, FIFA shared on 21 March that a plan has been developed to provide football opportunities for Afghan women both within and outside the country, but did not say whether they intend to officially recognize the AWNT or how specific funding would be allocated.