Khalida Popal

Khalida Popal is an inspirational women’s activist, footballer and sports ambassador. She helped to found – and captain – the Afghan Women’s Football Team. In her upcoming memoir, My Beautiful Sisters, Khalida relates the extreme challenges of setting up a women’s football league in a country still dominated by a powerful patriarchal system. Khalida has been hounded out of her own country for daring to stand up for women's right to play sport. She has exposed the harrowing stories of the sexual abuse that became endemic among female football teams, forcing FIFA and Interpol to act against the former president of the Afghan Football Association.

Last Summer, she faced her sternest test yet. As Kabul fell to the Taliban, amidst Western disarray, she was instrumental in helping to orchestrate the incredible international efforts to get 300 female football players out of Kabul - where they faced the imminent possibility of execution - and into safety in the UK, Portugal and Australia. My Beautiful Sisters has sold to Two Roads Publishing, an imprint of Hachette UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalida_Popal

Photo Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown