Street scen of Herat province.
By External Source
HERAT, Afghanistan, Mar 18 2026 (IPS)
When Khadija Ahmadzada was arrested in Herat province of Afghanistan in January this year, it sparked widespread domestic and international protests. Women’s rights activists and social media users raised their voices with slogans such as “Sport is not a crime,” “Education is a right for women,” and “Don’t erase women,” often using the hashtag #BeHerVoice.
At the time of her arrest, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, Richard Bennett, had called for the immediate release of taekwondo coach Khadija Ahmadzada, expressing deep concern over her detention by the Taliban.
She has since been released but the outcry underlined the need for supporting Afghan women athletes, which activists around the world pointed out is a collective responsibility and warned that remaining silent in the face of oppression carries dangerous consequences.
Khadija Ahmadzada, 22, was an award-winning taekwondo athlete and coach of Afghanistan’s national youth team during the republic era. When the Taliban came to power, she tried to keep the sport alive for women and girls, creating opportunities for them to train, learn, and move forward at a time when those opportunities were steadily disappearing.
Herat was once a city where women’s sports clubs thrived. The women were highly motivated and recorded many achievements. The centers were not merely places for physical training; they also served as educational, social, and empowerment spaces for women and girls. Following the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan, all women’s sports facilities were shut down, and female athletes were categorically barred from continuing their activities.
Sports clubs have been closed to women since 2021, shortly after the Taliban returned to power, adding to a raft of measures put in place based on the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law. At the time, it was claimed they would reopen when a “safe environment” had been established. But as of January 2026, no sports club has reopened, and women are still barred from competition.
Known not only as a skilled athlete but also a determined and committed coach, Khadija Ahmadzada continued her work quietly under the Taliban’s strict restrictions, ensuring that women who wanted to train could still find a way. But her efforts did not remain hidden. In January 2026, she was arrested.
Her arrest highlights the intense pressure on active women in Afghanistan and reflects how they are forced to take forbidden paths to protect their basic rights and stay part of society.
Khadija Ahmadzada was trained in taekwondo professionally at the Jumong Taekwondo Academy in Herat under the guidance of Korean experts. Within a short time, she became a member of Afghanistan’s national youth team and won medals in domestic and regional competitions. She began teaching and training girls in taekwondo after ending her professional athletic career.
One of Khadija Ahmadzada’s students, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons said, “she is a skilled and devoted coach, and I am proud of her courage and selflessness”. When the Taliban’s morality police came to arrest Khadija, she assisted her students leave the club quietly while she stayed behind in defiance of the Taliban’s rules and was detained.
In the early days after Herat fell to the Taliban in August 2021, they began a gradual process of shutting down women and girls’ sports centers in stages. First the regime’s morality police issued verbal orders to operators of sports centers. The screws were tightened further in subsequent actions by confiscating equipment, locking up the gates of sports clubs and arrests of the owners and coaches.
Khadija’s two weeks in prison put tremendous pressure on her family. They repeatedly appealed to local representatives, community elders, and officials to help secure her release. Khadija was finally released after 13 days of imprisonment with a written pledge to not repeat the offense. Yet her freedom was less an end to suffering than a reminder of a life endured under Afghanistan’s Taliban.
Khadija established an underground taekwondo training program in the Jebraeil neighborhood of Herat, which has become a symbol of women’s resistance against the Taliban’s strict restrictions. She noted that before the Taliban came, many women were active in this field and earned a living through it. When the Taliban took over, sports halls were closed by their orders, women’s teams were disbanded, and female athletes and coaches either stayed at home or left the country. Among those who remained, women were forced to choose between complete silence or quiet resistance. Khadija was one of those who chose the latter.
IPS UN Bureau
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Excerpt:
The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons.Babják Zoltán polgármester Facebookon közzétett bejegyzése szerint erdőtűz keletkezett a Beregszászhoz tartozó Kuklyán.
A katasztrófáról részleteket egyelőre nem tudni.
„A tűzoltók a helyi lakosokkal együtt dolgoznak a Kuklyán kitört erdőtűz következményeinek felszámolásán”
– írta a polgármester.
Frissítés (21.06):
Babják Zoltán újabb bejegyzésben írt a fejleményekről. Mint fogalmazott, a Beregszász 17. Állami Tűzoltó- és Mentőegység tűzoltói, valamint a vári és tiszaújlaki önkéntes csapatok a tűz gócpontját megközelítve a legnagyobb lángokat sikeresen megfékezték.
„Az elkövetkező egy órán belül várható a tűz teljes körű lokalizálása”
– tette hozzá a városvezető, aki egyben köszönetet mondott a szakembereknek az összehangolt, eredményes munkáért.
The post Erdőtűz Kuklyán appeared first on Kárpátalja.ma.
A Ferencváros labdarúgócsapata 4-0-s vereséget szenvedett szerdán a Braga vendégeként az Európa-liga nyolcaddöntőjének visszavágóján, így 4-2-es összesítéssel elveszítette a párharcot és nem jutott a legjobb nyolc közé.
A portugál együttes 16 perc alatt ledolgozta a Budapesten összeszedett kétgólos hátrányát, majd még az első félidőben harmadszor is betalált, ezzel már a szünetre megfordította az összesített állást. A Braga aztán a folytatásban sem adott sok esélyt ellenfelének, még egy gólt szerzett, így összességében magabiztosan ment tovább.
A portugál csapat a görög Panathinaikosz és a spanyol Real Betis párharcának győztesével játszik majd a negyeddöntőben.
Forrás: MTI
Nyitókép: fradi.hu
Kapcsolódó:
Európa-liga: kétgólos ferencvárosi győzelemThe post Négygólos vereséggel búcsúzik az Európa-ligától a Ferencváros appeared first on Kárpátalja.ma.