PARIS: Zakia Khudadadi has spent most of her life breaking through glass ceilings. Or rather, smashing through them with a sidekick.
The taekwondo Paralympian made history in 2021 in Tokyo, becoming the first Afghan woman to compete in an international sporting event since the Taliban took back control of her country as US and NATO troops withdrew following 20 year of war.
Originally blocked from competing following the rise of the Taliban, she was later evacuated from Afghanistan and allowed to compete for her country following a plea from the international community.
In the 2024 Paralympics, part of the wider Olympic competitions in Paris, Khudadadi said she is competing in the name of women in her country who have gradually been stripped of their rights over the past three years.
“It’s hard for me because I’d like to compete under my country’s flag,” she said. But “life for all girls and women in Afghanistan is forbidden. It’s over. Today, I’m here to win a medal in Paris for them. I want to show strength to all women and girls in Afghanistan.”
Khudadadi is competing for the Refugee Paralympic Team, while other athletes are seeking medals under Afghanistan’s flag, such as Olympic sprinter Kimia Yousofi. Yousofi’s parents fled during the Taliban’s previous rule and she was born and raised in neighboring Iran. She said she wanted to represent her country, flaws and all, and wanted to “be the voice of Afghan girls.”
For Khudadadi, she began practicing taekwondo at 11, training in secret at a gym in her hometown of Herāt because there were simply no other opportunities for women to safely practice sports. Despite a closed culture around her, Khudadadi said her family was open and would push her to be active.
Compounding her struggles to compete in Afghanistan, she said, was her disability.
Despite having “one of the largest populations per capita of persons with disabilities in the world” due to conflict, people with disabilities are often shunned and blocked from Afghan society, according to Human Rights Watch. Women are often disproportionately affected.
Born without one forearm, Khudadadi said she spent her life hiding her arm. It was only when she started competing that it began to change.
“Before I started in sports, I protected myself a lot with my arm. But little by little ... I started showing my arm, but only in the club. Only while competing,” she said.
As she began to compete, she said she felt that stigma begin to melt away. Taekwondo once again became her path to freedom, and she gained attention in 2016, when she medaled internationally for the first time.
That all changed five years later, when the Taliban made a dramatic ascent to power following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. While preparing for Tokyo, Khudadadi was trapped in the country’s capital, Kabul.
The International Paralympic Committee originally issued a statement saying the Afghan team wouldn’t participate in the Games held in 2021 “due to the serious ongoing situation in the country.” But in a bid to compete, Khudadadi released a video pleading with the international community for help.
“Please, I urge you all, from the women around the globe, institutions for the protection of women, from all government organizations, to not let the rights of a female citizen of Afghanistan in the Paralympic movement to be taken away, so easily,” she said. “I don’t want my struggle to be in vain.”
She was evacuated to Tokyo in 2021 to compete, leaving behind her family.
By doing so, she became the first Afghan female Paralympian in nearly two decades. In 2023, she won gold at the the European Para Championships.
Following her flight from Afghanistan, she settled in Paris, but she said she aches for the mix of cultures that paints her country and the openness of the people wandering the bustling streets of Kabul.
“I hope some day I’ll be able to return to Afghanistan, to Kabul, to live life together in freedom and peace,” she said.
Thousands of miles away in Khudadadi’s hometown of Herat, 38-year-old Shah Mohammad was among throwing their support behind Khudadadi and other Afghan female athletes in Paris.
“We are happy for the Afghan women who have gone to the Olympics, but my wish is that one day women from inside Afghanistan can participate in the Games and be the voice of women from the country,” Mohammad said.
That day is unlikely any time soon.
The Taliban have cut women from much of public life and blocked girls from studying beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they have imposed since 2021 despite initially promising more moderate rule. Just in January, the United Nations said the Taliban are now restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or have no male guardian.
They haven’t just banned sports for women and girls, they have intimidated and harassed those who once played.
But even before the Taliban’s return to power, women’s sports were opposed by many in the country’s deeply conservative society, seen as a violation of women’s modesty and of their role in society.
Still, the previous, Western-backed government had programs encouraging women’s sports and school clubs, leagues and national teams.
For Khudadadi, the IOC’s refugee team helped her and other athletes who have fled their countries continue their careers. The Paralympian trains long hours — eyes set on a gold medal in Paris — with deep frustration as she’s watch strides for women in her country erode, and Afghanistan once again fall out of the global spotlight.
One question simmers in Khudadadi’s mind: “Why the world has forgotten Afghan women?”
Still, for others like Mohammad Amin Sharifi, 43, watching Khudadadi and other Afghan Olympians in Paris, especially women, has been a point of pride for people like him in Afghanistan.
“Right now, we need Afghan women’s voices to be raised in any way possible and the Olympics are the best place for that,” Sharifi said from Kabul. “We are happy and proud of the women representing the Afghan people.”
First Afghan woman to compete internationally after Taliban takeover seeks Olympic gold in Paris
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First Afghan woman to compete internationally after Taliban takeover seeks Olympic gold in Paris
- Zakia Khudadadi is competing for the Refugee Paralympic Team, while other athletes are seeking medals under Afghanistan’s flag
- Khudadadi began practicing taekwondo at 11, training in secret at a gym in Herāt because there were simply no other opportunities
UK Armed Forces ill-equipped to back Israel as Middle East conflict escalates: Experts
- RAF Typhoons played no part in intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles launched on Tuesday
- Ex-defense secretary: Royal Navy destroyers, carrier groups, F-35 jets not at optimal capacity for deployment to warzone
LONDON:The UK lacks the military means to help Israel defend itself from Iranian ballistic missile attacks, defense experts have told the Daily Telegraph.
Iran struck Israel with nearly 200 long-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, but RAF Typhoon aircraft based in Cyprus lacked the weapons needed to intercept them.
They were instead relegated to a monitoring role, with the Ministry of Defense saying they “did not engage any targets.”
The Royal Navy’s fleet of Type-45 destroyers is also ill-equipped to respond to such attacks, according to former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
Its two carrier groups, meanwhile, are reportedly understaffed to the point where they would struggle if deployed to an active war zone.
Tom Sharpe, former navy commander, told the Telegraph: “Our involvement (in the response to Iran) was underwhelming and it’s a reflection of 40 years of underfunding. Given what is going on in the Middle East and Russia, we need to expedite our ability to provide ballistic missile defense from our T-45 destroyers.”
MoD sources told the newspaper that “the Armed Forces remained open to the changing situation in the Middle East,” and were capable of destroying incoming ballistic missiles.
RAF jets took part in defending Israel from an Iranian missile barrage in April following an Israeli attack on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus. However, that Iranian attack involved less sophisticated cruise missiles and drones.
The ballistic missiles used in Tuesday’s attack fly faster and on higher trajectories, making them harder to intercept.
Tehran is believed to have spent large sums on developing its ballistic missile program in recent years, and US intelligence believes it to have a stockpile of over 3,000.
The UK plans to equip its Type-45s with next-generation Aster 30 interceptor weapons to intercept ballistic missiles, but the development program, though approved by the MoD, is yet to get underway.
Wallace, who green-lit the program, told the Telegraph: “Britain could have the capability to have a Type-45 permanently guarding our shores equipped with the upgraded Aster 30.
“We should, with immediate effect, seek to accelerate the already planned upgrade of their missile systems in light of what we are seeing in the Middle East.”
The US was able to deploy three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to help defend Israel against the missile salvo.
UK forces, initially deployed to the region to conduct missions against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, have seen their numbers bolstered since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas last year.
However, their combat capabilities have been repeatedly questioned, including after a Telegraph investigation discovered that manpower shortages meant the Royal Navy was not at “optimal readiness” to be deployed to the Red Sea to counter the threat posed by the Houthis in Yemen to global shipping.
A source told the Telegraph: “The Navy has clearly been hiding the fact it has a clear problem with getting sailors to sea. They don’t have enough people to crew the ships they already have, let alone new ships.”
Wallace said the UK’s F-35 aircraft, which fly from its carrier groups, were also poorly equipped to deal with threats in the Middle East.
“Sadly, because of slow walking by the F-35 Joint Programme Office in the US, Britain’s F-35s cannot enjoy the full range of weapons that we would like to put on them.
“This limits its utility and means that a land-based Typhoon still offers the best offensive capability in the Gulf region.”
He added: “If F-35s were properly equipped with the right missiles it probably is worth sending, but at the moment it isn’t. It would go down there and guard American aircraft carriers and not maximize its potential.”
Sharpe said: “We are getting a little fixated by drones and swarm attacks and yet, if you look at the Red Sea, 94 percent of attacks on shipping contained missiles.
“Tuesday was 100 percent missiles. The good old missile is not going away. All of this needs more money.”
Vietnam condemns China for assault on its fishermen in the disputed South China Sea
- The fishermen first reported the assault near the Chinese-controlled islands by radio on Sunday but did not identify the attackers
HANOI: Vietnam condemned China on Thursday while saying that Chinese law enforcement personnel assaulted 10 Vietnamese fishermen, damaged their fishing gear and seized about 4 tons of fish catch near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
The fishermen first reported the assault near the Chinese-controlled islands by radio on Sunday but did not identify the attackers.
Three of the fishermen suffered broken limbs and the rest sustained other injuries, according to Vietnamese state media. Some were taken on stretchers to a hospital after they returned to Quang Ngai province late Monday.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed Chinese law enforcement personnel on Thursday for the high-seas attack, saying it had “seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty in the Paracel Islands,” international law and an agreement by the leaders of the rival claimant countries to better manage their territorial disputes.
Chinese officials did not immediately issue a reaction.
Vietnam conveyed its protest and alarm over the attack to the Chinese ambassador in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
Vietnam demanded that Beijing respect its sovereignty in the Paracel Islands, launch an investigation and provide Hanoi with information about the attack, Vietnamese spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
China has become increasingly aggressive in asserting its claims in virtually the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in global trade transits each year. The busy sea passage is also believed to be sitting atop vast undersea deposits of oil and gas.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the strategic waterway.
The United States has no claims in the disputed waters, but it has deployed Navy ships and Air Force fighter jets to patrol the waterway and promote freedom of navigation and overflight. China has warned the US not to meddle in what it says is a purely Asian dispute.
The Vietnamese newspaper Tien Phong cited one of the fishermen, Tran Tien Cong, as saying that two foreign boats approached them from the rear and that personnel from those vessels boarded their boat and started beating the fishermen with a meter-long (three-foot-long) stick, apparently made of iron.
The Vietnamese fishermen panicked and did not fight back because they were overwhelmed by an estimated 40 attackers. Another fisherman, Nguyen Thuong, was cited as saying that the attackers, who spoke through a translator, ordered them to sail back to Vietnam. The assailants then seized their fishing gear and fish catch.
After being beaten, the Vietnamese fishermen were forced to kneel and were covered with plastic sheets before the attackers left.
The Paracel Islands lie about 400 kilometers off Vietnam’s eastern coast and about the same distance from China’s southernmost province of Hainan. Both countries, along with the self-governing island of Taiwan, claim the islands.
The islands have been under the de facto control of China since 1974, when Beijing seized them from Vietnam in a brief but violent naval conflict.
Last year, satellite photos showed that China appeared to be building an airstrip on Triton Island in the Paracel group. At the time, it appeared the airstrip would be big enough to accommodate turboprop aircraft and drones but not fighter jets or bombers.
China has also had a small harbor and buildings on the island for years, along with a helipad and radar arrays.
China has refused to provide details of its island construction work other than to say it is aimed at promoting global navigation safety.
It has rejected accusations, including by the US, that it is militarizing the sea passage.
Bangladesh recalls five envoys in major diplomatic reshuffle
- Political upheaval in the South Asian nation ushered in the interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus
- The departure of Sheikh Hasina’s government has triggered a broad administrative overhaul
DHAKA: Bangladesh has recalled five envoys, including the ambassador to neighboring India, foreign ministry officials said on Thursday, in a major diplomatic reshuffle as the interim government clears out holdovers from the previous administration.
Political upheaval in the South Asian nation ushered in the interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus after weeks of violent protests forced the Aug. 5 resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who then fled to India.
The foreign ministry ordered envoys in Brussels, Canberra, Lisbon, New Delhi and the permanent mission to the United Nations in New York to immediately return to the capital, Dhaka, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It’s possible the government doesn’t want them to continue, as they were appointed by Hasina’s administration,” said one government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if more changes in the diplomatic corps follow.”
The departure of Hasina’s government has triggered a broad administrative overhaul, with hundreds of senior officials being re-assigned or transferred, and the contracts of some key ones terminated, forcing many of them to resign or retire early.
All the recalled diplomats are set to go on post-retirement leave in December, another foreign ministry official said.
“You are requested to leave your current posts and return to Dhaka without delay,” the ministry told the diplomats in its notice, seen by Reuters.
The step follows the recall from Britain of Saida Muna Tasneem, the high commissioner, or ambassador, who was similarly told to return.
A foreign ministry spokesperson made no comment on when the replacements might be announced.
More than 700 people died as a result of the student-led movement that ousted Hasina, straining ties with India. The neighbors have a 4,000-km (2500-mile) border and maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal.
Minority groups in Bangladesh have made accusations of attacks on Hindus after the political changes, though the government says the violence was motivated by politics, not religion.
Swedish teenagers charged over blasts near Israel’s Copenhagen embassy
- The two teenagers, aged 16 and 19, were detained on Wednesday on a train at Copenhagen’s main railway station
COPENHAGEN: Two Swedish teenagers were charged in a Danish court on Thursday with possessing five hand grenades and detonating two of them on a rooftop near Israel’s embassy in Copenhagen, the prosecutor said in court.
No one was injured in the two explosions early on Wednesday, but the building near the embassy sustained some damage, investigators said.
The two teenagers, aged 16 and 19, were detained on Wednesday on a train at Copenhagen’s main railway station, and were questioned on Thursday in a Copenhagen city court. The court banned publication of their names.
A third man, aged 19, was detained elsewhere in the Danish capital and was released after questioning, Danish police said.
The police said they were investigating whether the embassy was the target of the explosions.
The blasts in the Danish capital followed a surge in tensions in the Middle East.
Israel, which has been fighting the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip for nearly a year, has sent troops into southern Lebanon after months of cross-border exchanges of fire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
This year at least 10 Swedes have been charged in Denmark with attempted murder or weapons possession, sparking criticism over the spread of organized crime.
Swedish authorities have previously said security police averted several planned attacks linked to Iranian security services using local criminal networks, a charge that Iran has said is “baseless.”
UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon
- MP Zarah Sultana tells BBC ex-colleagues who disagree with PM risk losing their jobs
- Labour leader has drawn criticism over failure to do more against Israel
LONDON: A former Labour MP has said colleagues are “scared for their jobs” over disagreeing with the party’s leader, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on Israel’s war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon.
Starmer has called for immediate ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, saying at the UN General Assembly last week that “escalation serves no one.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also announced a review into arms export licenses to Israel in July, amid fears that items sold to the country could be used to commit war crimes in Gaza. Thirty licenses were suspended in September.
However, Starmer has found himself at odds with many in his party, with some believing that he has not done enough to facilitate an end to the fighting in the Middle East, or that he has been slow to act. Currently, 320 arms exports licenses from the UK to Israel remain valid.
MP Zarah Sultana, who was suspended by the party earlier this year, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “Many (disagree with Starmer) because we’re seeing (the) deaths of 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. We’re seeing death in Lebanon, and we know the UK government could take a different route where it prioritized lives, treated them all equally and ended all arms sales.
“I think it’s deeply concerning that people aren’t willing to be public about that because they’re scared for their jobs.”
One of the program’s hosts, Nick Robinson, told listeners that he had contacted six Labour MPs to ask them to comment on Sultana’s claims, but said: “None would come on the program as they said, and I quote one of the MPs we contacted, ‘it would cost us our jobs.’”
Sultana was one of seven Labour MPs suspended by the party in July after voting for a Scottish National Party motion to amend the King’s Speech, which is the UK government’s policy platform for the coming year. She currently sits as an independent MP in the House of Commons.