Samira Asghari, member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Afghanistan, has called on the United States to rescue Afghan women athletes from the crisis area as soon as possible.

"Please, Afghanistan's national athletes, their coaches and helpers need your help," Asghari wrote on Wednesday in a tweet that has since been deleted.

“We have to get them out of the hands of the Taliban, out of Afghanistan, especially Kabul.

Please do something before it's too late. "

Alexander Davydov

Sports editor.

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Asghari linked the profiles of the American diplomat Ross Wilson and the American Olympic and Paralympic Committee, among others.

According to the news portal Around the Rings, the IOC is monitoring the current situation and is in contact with several Afghan sports associations.

According to the report, the IOC could not provide more detailed information in order not to endanger the security of the people on the ground.

Imminent danger to women

Since the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan, the radical Islamic Taliban have taken control of the country again in just a few weeks after their expulsion in 2001. President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad last Sunday. Conditions are currently chaotic in Afghanistan. Thousands of residents try to leave the country via the airport in the capital, Kabul. Many fear reprisals from the new rulers.

International observers and human rights activists are concerned about the threat to Afghan women. In an initial statement, a Taliban spokesman assured that the new government was striving for peace. The rights and freedoms of women will be respected, but within the framework of strictly religious Sharia legislation. How exactly this will look is unclear. According to media reports, there has already been an increasing number of attacks against women.

Zakia Khudadadi, who should have been the first Afghan female para-athlete to take part in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, reported in a video message that she was "trapped in her own home" due to the security situation. The 23-year-old told the American television broadcaster CBS: "I'm waiting any minute for something terrible to happen to me or my family." Other top Afghan athletes such as Taekwondo fighter Zahra Mirzaei have already fled the country.

The IOC suspended Afghanistan in 1999 and excluded it from the Sydney Olympics. The reason for this at the time was the suppression of women's rights. After the Islamists were driven out, the country returned to the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. The athlete Robina Muqim Yaar and the judoka Friba Razayee were the first women to compete for Afghanistan. At the Tokyo 2020 games, the 100-meter runner Kamia Yousufi was the only woman to start for Afghanistan.