Afghanistan: a chess tournament reserved only for women
Audio 01:30
Afghan women attend an event to mark Women's Rights Day in Kabul on March 7, 2021 (illustrative image).
AP - Rahmat Gul
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In Afghanistan, Women's Rights Day was celebrated among other things during a 100% female chess tournament in Kabul, in the courtyard of a hotel under high security.
Twenty of them played a game that has been increasingly popular with young women in recent years.
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With our correspondent in Kabul,
Sonia Ghezali
On either side of green and white chessboards, twenty young women clash in silence.
Zainab advances one of his black pawns two spaces then presses the timer.
“
Sports are not accepted by the families of the players,
” she regrets.
But failures are.
It's easier to get families to agree.
And we can play online too.
These are the advantages of chess.
"
Over 20 years ago under the Taliban, such an outdoor tournament would have been unthinkable.
But it is certainly in Kabul more than elsewhere that women's lives have changed.
And that some have been able to engage in activities.
Chess is for Mahnaz Saleem the escape from brutal reality.
“
In Afghanistan, there are a lot of explosions, that's why we can't go to school or university, do what we love,
” she explains.
When you play chess, you don't think about anything, just the game.
”
The uncertainty of the outcome
of the peace talks
between the Taliban and the Afghan government is still on everyone's mind.
“
All women are afraid of losing these opportunities.
Because we don't know what the future holds.
We are afraid,
”adds Mahnaz Saleem.
Zainab does not prefer to think about it, but rather to dream.
“
I hope that one day I can be champion and beat a man,
” she laughs.
If God wants !
"
On the occasion of International Women's Day,
the Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic
was awarded to an Afghan politician, Habiba Sarabi.
Minister of Women's Affairs in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2004, in 2005 she became the first woman in the history of Afghanistan to govern a province.
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International women's rights day
Women
Womens rights
Afghanistan