'It's heartbreaking': Malala meets the exiled Afghanistan women's team

Nobel peace prize winner urges Fifa to acknowledge players' plight and to fight gender discrimination

- Suzanne Wrack

The Women's World Cup may be over, but the many issues underpinning the women's game remain. From the fight of the Nigeria players to be paid for their participation and South Africa's team boycotting a warm-up match in protest at pay and conditions, to England's Lionesses battling for performance-related bonuses as well as Spanish players withdrawing before the tournament over frustrations with the culture around the team, players used the biggest stage to push for change.

One team unable to do that, though, denied the right even to have a chance at competing on the world stage, should not be forgotten. The Afghanistan women's national team was evacuated from the country after the withdrawal of US and Nato troops and the Taliban takeover in 2021. Since then, those players, women that fought for their survival, left their families and were resettled in Australia, have rebuilt their lives and their team in Melbourne. Football put them at great risk; it also saved them.

Except while they have continued playing, competing in Australia's seventh tier as Melbourne Victory AWT, they have been blocked from competing internationally by a system that refuses to recognise a team not sanctioned by its national federation, one that operates in conjunction with Taliban rulers who refuse to allow women any role in public life, let alone sport. Unable to be formally recognised by Fifa, they have been stripped of the tool they used to push back against oppression.

Support for the team has come from many corners of the world and in Australia the players met one of their biggest advocates in the shape of Malala Yousafzai, the education activist and recipient of the Nobel peace prize who was shot by a member of the Pakistani Taliban when she was 15.