In Morocco, exiled Afghan women footballers find hope on the pitch

MANOOZH Noori said she "wanted to die" when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. That meant she could no longer do what she loved most: playing football.

- MANOOZH Noori

Noori, now 22, fled the country where the United Nations say authorities have implemented a "gender apartheid", and has been playing in a team of Afghan refugee women, recently taking part in a first-of-its-kind tournament in Morocco.

"I had asked myself: do I want to stay in this country with people who want to forbid women from studying, from playing football, from doing anything?" Noori told.

The Taliban authorities, who say that women's rights are protected by Islamic law, have banned girls and women from schools beyond the age of 12, and also from most jobs and public services - - and from playing sports.

Noori had defied family pressure to represent Afghanistan professionally by playing for the country's national women's squad before a Taliban government returned to power.

She said she buried her trophies and medals in her family's backyard and left the country for Australia.