They have already obtained the most beautiful of victories.

The two Afghan sportsmen qualified for the Tokyo Paralympic Games will take part in the competition.  

After leaving their country which fell into the hands of the Taliban, Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli arrived in Japan on Saturday August 28.

“Both athletes are here in Tokyo to fulfill their dreams, sending a very strong message of hope to many other athletes around the world,” said International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spokesperson Craig Spence.

Good news at last.

Afghan athletes Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli have arrived in Japan.

Zakia will be the first women Afghan athlete to compete in the Paralympics since 2004. # Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/ahLVFFE7Yz

- Melanie Brock (@melaniebrockjpn) August 28, 2021

The two athletes were greeted at the Paralympic Village on Saturday evening by IPC President Andrew Parsons, IPC Athlete Council President Chelsey Gotell, and Afghan delegation chef de mission Arian Sadiqi.

“As you can imagine, this meeting was extremely emotional,” Spence said, adding, “There were a lot of tears from everyone in the room. It was an incredible meeting. ".

According to Franceinfo, Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli were able to leave their country in the company of about fifty Afghan athletes thanks to an exfiltration mission led by the Australian government.

They then spent a week in Paris, training at the National Institute of Sports Expertise and Performance (INSEP) after their evacuation.

A cry for help

Sprinter Hossain Rasouli, who lost his left arm in a mine explosion, had to line up for 100m but he arrived too late for the series which took place on Saturday.

He will participate in the long jump competition on Tuesday. 

Taekwondoist Zakia Khudadadi, who has only one working arm, will compete in less than 49 kg on Thursday (category K44).

She will become the first Afghan woman to compete in the Paralympic Games.

A few days before the start of the competition, then trapped in Kabul, she had appealed for help.

“Please reach out your hand and help me. I am currently trapped inside the house. I cannot even go out in confidence, in safety to go and buy myself something, to train, to check how others are doing or that I am not excluded from the competition ", she implored in a video published by Reuters

Their well-being above all

Craig Spence pointed out that the mental health and well-being of athletes was the "first priority" of the IPC. The IPC spokesperson added that the organizers wanted to avoid a "selfie festival" with the other participants in the village, but stressed that the two Afghans could mingle with the other participants.

"We're not saying 'you just have to stay in your rooms and not go out,'" he said. "We tell them that once they have completed their three-day quarantine, they will be able to fully experience being in the Athletes' Village." In their absence, the Afghan flag was symbolically paraded last Tuesday during the opening ceremony. "We always knew that there was a slim chance that the two athletes could participate in Tokyo 2020, which is why the Afghan flag was deployed", explained the president of the IPC.

The sudden fall of Kabul and the country ended twenty years of pro-Western rule.

It panicked part of the Afghan population, the most urban and educated, who fear that a leaden blanket will befall society, as during their previous reign.

In power between 1996 and 2001, they had banned most recreation, including some sports, instead using the stadiums for public executions.

Now that Sharia law is back in force, Afghan sportswomen are particularly worried about losing the freedoms acquired in recent decades and fear for their lives.

With AFP

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